Playing With Matches
by Xx-Twitch-xX
Summary: When self proclaimed bad-ass Max Martinez and her family move from Colorado to Arizona, she hardly expects to meet the misbehaved Fang Ride and his friends, and she definitely doesn't expect what comes after meeting him. Badboy!Fang. Fax after a while. Edgy T for the moment, although it could move up to M at any moment.
1. Chapter 1

Here's the new story you were all wondering about ;) It's got language. Deal. It's got lots of innuendos. Deal. It's got badboy!Fang. (And badboy!Iggy :D) I'm sure you're all okay with that. (I'm trusting that you're all mature enough to read this! *mother look*) I also don't own Maximum Ride. Imagine it says that at the beginning of every chapter now.

RACHEL. IF YOU'RE READING THIS, CLICK THE BACK BUTTON RIGHT NOW.

If your name is Rachel and you don't know who I am, feel free to keep reading! :D That's there as a warning to my friends/acquaintances named Rachel, as one is too innocent to read this story, and the other probably doesn't know what "fuck" means. (As in, she doesn't know what act it entails.) (If you have no clue what I mean, I point you to Urban Dictionary. Or the back button. Either works.)

**Also, please don't expect me to update this regularly.**

(Hi Alex! Enjoy! 4)

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><p>Max definitely considered herself a rule-breaker. Every morning, she woke up and ignored the make-up, which she was apparently supposed to wear, ignored the fancy hair stuff, which she was supposed to know how to use, and ignored the skirt and blouse laid out for her, which she wouldn't be caught dead in. Max took pride in the fact that she broke the apparent 'rules' of being a girl by wearing (not so tight) skinny jeans, a t-shirt, and ratty converse almost every day. (The chain was only broken on the days when she wore her combat boots instead of converse.) Max also did nothing to her hair but brush it and wash it. And make-up? Max didn't even know what you called any of the stuff.<p>

So this morning when she woke up at six-thirty, it wasn't any different. She pulled on a pair of dark skinny jeans, a black v-neck t-shirt, and her ratty black converse. (She really needed to get a new pair.) She grabbed a grey jacket and her backpack, and headed downstairs where she wolfed down a bowl of cereal, much to her sister Ella's disgust.

"Max, can't you eat just a bit slower? It's disgusting," Ella said with a sneer on her face. Ella was the exact opposite of Max: a complete girly-girl, she loved any outfit that included a skirt or ruffles (it was even better if it was both), and it was in her best interest to make Max wear make-up one of these days. So far, she'd had no luck, and Max planned to keep it that way.

Max rolled her eyes. "Ells, we gotta get to school. It's our first day, remember?" As she said this, she checked the clock on the wall, they needed to leave in five minutes if they were going to make it there in time to find their lockers. Max internally sighed. She hated moving almost as much as she hated… well, nothing. She hated moving, and she _hated_ the first day at a new school.

It was Ella's turn to roll her eyes. "I _know_, Max. I just don't want to _choke_ on my food." She took a dainty bite of her half-finished toast to prove her point.

Max shouldered her backpack and grabbed her jacket and car keys. "Come on, before mom wakes up and forces us out." She headed for the door, and Ella was quick to follow after that comment; their mom was _not_ pleasant in the mornings.

Max and Ella threw their backpacks into the back of Max's Mustang, and drove to school in less than silence. Ella would _not_ shut up about a boy who was apparently "sex on a stick." Max rolled her eyes. "No, but seriously, Max, I heard from Nudge that he's a junior like you, and he's from some reform school just outside of Phoenix, and Nudge said that he's just your type!"

Max turned to glare at Ella as they hit a stop sign. "Are you suggesting that I can only date guys from reform schools? I dated Sam. He was a good guy." _Who the hell was Nudge?_ Max added internally, then remembered that Ella had somehow managed to _already_ make friends. They'd just moved here a week ago! Max swore she would never understand her sister.

Ella laughed as Max pulled into the school parking lot. "No! Nudge just said that based on what I've said about you, he seems like he's just your type. But Nudge said that he's got a girlfriend, so that's gonna be an issue if—"

Max parked the car. "Ella, shut up. I don't wanna date this guy, even if he is 'sex on a stick'. I've never even met him. I'll meet you back here at the end of the day." Max climbed out of her car, grabbed her backpack, and headed inside for her first day at… Meadville High. Ugh.

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><p>And of course, because she was new, Max got lost on her way to first period (AP US History with Mrs. Pierce.) and had to ask for help from a doe-eyed looking boy. (Probably a freshman.) She walked into her class (Damn. Late.) and took a seat one row from the back. The only seat open in the back (where she would have sat) was next to a mischievous looking strawberry-blond headed boy with a black ring running through his bottom lip and tiny black gauges in both ears. His foot was propped up in the seat next to him as if he were saving it for someone, so Max wasn't about to sit there. He winked at her as she took a seat diagonal to him.<p>

Mrs. Pierce watched Max take her seat with disdain. "As it is your first day," she checked her role sheet, "Ms. Martinez, I will excuse your tardy. Don't let it happen again." She cleared her throat and went back to calling role. "Mr. Ride?" No answer. Mrs. Pierce looked up. "Nick Ride." She looked over the class, her eyes fixated on the empty seat behind Max. "Will Mr. Ride be joining us today?"

"He'll be here," spoke a voice from behind Max, and she turned to see that the boy who winked at her had spoken. He caught her eye and winked again, smiling this time.

Mrs. Pierce's eyes darted over to the boy who had spoken. "Thank you, Mr. Griffiths. Now, Ms. Rollins?" A girl answered, and Mrs. Pierce was about to call another name when the door slammed open so hard that it sounded like something broke. Max turned in her seat to see that the door stop had indeed snapped off the wall, and oh _God_ the hottest boy she had ever seen was sauntering over to the desk right behind hers, where he slung his ratty bag to the floor and dropped into the seat. He caught her eye, then put his head down and appeared to go to sleep. Max couldn't stop herself from staring at his shaggy black hair that hung down into his eyes (which she was pretty sure were coal black), his dark green sweater, which had many less-than-artfully-torn holes in it, exposing his tanned skin, and his ratty jeans ending in heavy looking boots.

Max's attention was snapped back to the front when Mrs. Pierce cleared her throat loudly. "Mr. Ride, that is the fifteenth time you've been late this _month._ Detention with me for a week, starting tomorrow." Behind Max, the boy grunted his confirmation of the punishment and apparently went on with his sleep. Mrs. Pierce was having none of that. "Mr. Ride, sit _up_ and pay attention, or there will be another week of detention."

'Mr. Ride' apparently sat up, because Mrs. Pierce went on with class.

"As everyone knows, we have a new student, Ms. Martinez. Is there anyone who would like to include her in their project group? If not, I'll pick the group to which she is assigned." Mrs. Pierce eyed her students with contempt, waiting for a hand to go up. Her eyes finally stopped on someone in the back of the room. "Ah, Mr. Griffiths. Thank you for letting Ms. Martinez join your group. Now split up into your groups and get to work. Remember your project is due next Monday!" Mrs. Pierce then went to her desk and left the class to work on whatever project she was talking about.

Max turned in her seat to face the guy who had winked at her earlier, who had moved his desk next to the boy sitting behind Max and was shaking him awake. He looked up from saying something into his apparent friend's ear when he saw that Max had turned around. "Saw you checking him out earlier," he nodded to the dark-haired boy. "I can set you up if you like." He winked at her for the third time that day, adding a grin to the mix this time.

Max blushed beet red. "I'm good." Damn sexist pigs. She knew he was joking, but Max really _hated_ guys like that. She turned her desk around, and when she was back to facing the two boys, the dark-haired one was blinking sleepily, and the strawberry-blond was eyeing him with something close to worry.

"Ig, I'm fine really. Just the… Oh," the dark-haired boy finished his statement as he noticed Max sitting awkwardly in her seat, trying not to stare at the way a rather large hole in his shirt showed off quite a bit of his muscular arm. He sent her a smoldering look. "Hey babe," he said, winking and running a hand through his hair to show off the five piercings on his left ear (all of which were black rings), and oh _God_, Max needed to look away right now before she just melted on the floor. "Like what you see? We can cut the rest of class. I know a good closet whe—Ow! Ig, what the fuck was that for?"

'Ig' had slapped the dark-haired boy and was glaring at him. "You have a girlfriend," he growled, pulling out a piece of paper and writing something on it.

The other boy rolled his eyes. "You and I both know that Charlie..." he trailed off after glancing cautiously at Max.

'Ig' finished scribbling on the piece of paper and passed it to Max. It had two scribbled names (Iggy and Fang) and seven digits under each of the names, then a note, _In case you ever want a good time._ "And why hasn't she broken up with you yet?" He sounded upset and worried for this "Charlie" girl.

Max didn't hear the rest of the conversation, though, because she was too distracted by the fact that she'd just been given two boys' number's whom she barely knew, and it seemed as if they were both flirting with her. However, her attention was caught by "Iggy and Fang" a few minutes later, who were both staring at her expectantly. She raised an eyebrow.

The dark-haired one spoke (Max assumed he was 'Fang'). "So what's your name, babe?" Max felt what she assumed was his booted foot rub against her leg, and she moved her desk away from him. He chuckled, but the foot rubbing against her leg didn't stop.

"Max," she said, glaring at the pair of them ('Fang' especially), and shifting uncomfortably because of the contact her leg was having with his foot. Why did all the good-looking boys have to be such jerks?

'Iggy' grinned at her. "I'm Iggy, that's Fang." He jerked his head to his friend, and leaned closer to her, lowering his voice, but Fang could still hear. "You'll have to excuse him calling you 'babe'. He does that to just about everyone. Even me, when he's tired."

Max raised her eyebrow at Fang, and he smirked at her. "What, babe? Still thinking about that offer? It's not hard to get old bat lady to kick us out of class, and that closet's just down the hall—"

Iggy cut Fang off by clearing his throat. "So this project that we're supposed to be doing, don't worry about it, Maxie. Fang and I took care of it the other night. We'll just add your name to the paper."

Max glared at Iggy for the use of the pet-name 'Maxie', but was surprised nonetheless. "You two don't strike me as the type to get your work done early." _Or at all,_ she added silently.

"Don't look so surprised, babe," Fang said, still rubbing his foot along her leg. He jerked his head to the door behind him. "I've got lots more surprises in store for you, if you'll just take me up on that closet offer." He winked and grinned for a split second.

Iggy rolled his eyes, apparently giving up and pulling out his phone. Max, on the other hand, was seething. "Would you _stop_ with that?" she all but yelled at him, earning her a disapproving glare from Mrs. Pierce.

Fang flashed Max a wolfish grin and leaned closer to her, hooking his foot around the back of her ankle and pulling her desk close to his, so their faces were three inches apart, roughly. "Stop what, babe?" he whispered, his warm breath that smelled like cinnamon and cigarette smoke washed over her face, dazing her for a split second, before she realised that she was leaning closer to him, and he was smirking like the cocky jerk he was.

She leaned back from him quickly. "You know very well what," she said, resisting the urge to kick his shin, as his foot was _still_ rubbing her calf.

He raised an eyebrow. "Afraid I don't, babe. I guess you'll just have to _say it._"

Max had no clue how he did it, but somehow he made that sentence sound _way_ more sexual than it should have been, and it set her over the edge. "You're so fucking—Ugh!" Max couldn't stop her voice from raising, and the entire class fell silent.

Mrs. Pierce looked up from the paper she was grading. "Ms. Martinez, I do _not_ tolerate that sort of language in my classroom. Detention for a week with Mr. Ride, starting tomorrow. If I hear another outburst from either of you, it will be two weeks for _both_ of you. Now get back to work."

Max was left wondering how that was fair, when she noticed that Iggy had looked up from his phone. "What happened?" he asked, and Max was about to explain how Fang was being a total _douche_ when the boy in question spoke up.

"'You're so fucking—Ugh!'" Fang made Max's statement sound extremely inappropriate (it seemed to be a talent of his), and Iggy laughed, questioning who had said such a statement. Max could see where this was going. Fang shrugged and said, "That's what _she_ said," jerking his head in Max's direction in the process.

Max could tell this was going to be a long year, and it was only October.

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><p>As it turns out, Max had <em>every single class<em> (except for fifth period pre-calc) with _both_ Iggy and Fang on her Monday block days. Just lovely. She even had the same lunch period as the two friends, and she was beginning to believe they were joined at the hip.

Max observed (not that she was watching them) during lunch, however, that they were joined by a shorter girl with (very) short blonde hair, who was wearing what looked to be an entire outfit borrowed from the closet of an older brother. Her red and black plaid shirt was loose around her shoulders, and her baggy cargo shorts fell just past her knees. The one thing she was wearing that couldn't have been borrowed from a potential older brother's closet was the white tank top that she wore under the unbuttoned plaid shirt. (Max only saw this when she turned around to throw something away—the girl was sitting with her back to Max.) Max assumed this was "Charlie," Fang's apparent girlfriend.

Max didn't cast herself as the type to judge, but this girl didn't really seem like Fang's type. He seemed like he would like a girl who thought mini-skirts and tank tops were school appropriate clothing, just like the girl who was now approaching Max with a strut in her step that made Max want to knock her over.

She cleared her throat and stood in front of Max's table (which was empty except for her). Max raised an eyebrow as she took a bite of the (rather disgusting) pizza, and the girl smiled brightly, twirling a finger around a strand of her red hair. "So, my friends and me were looking around the lunch room, and we like, noticed that you were sitting like, all by yourself. So, because my friends and me are so amazing, we wanted to know if you like, wanted to eat with us!" The girl finished, apparently proud of herself for finishing and not falling over or something equally hilarious.

"Um… Thanks for the offer…" Max trailed off as she saw around the girl's back that Fang was getting up from his table and was headed their way. She was vaguely aware that the girl thought she had trailed off because she hadn't mentioned her name, and was repeating her name like a badly trained parrot, but Max was too distracted by the fact that Fang had met her eye and was _definitely_ heading over to her table.

"…Lissa! Did you hear me? My name's Lissa!" the girl repeated when Max snapped her attention back to the red-haired girl.

"I—" Max started.

"Sorry to interrupt, girls," Fang spoke from behind Lissa, putting his hands on her upper arms and shifting her out of the way. "But I'm supposed to steal Max before she's transformed." He pushed Lissa in the direction of her table, and she wobbled on her heels. "Come on, babe," he said to Max over his shoulder as he headed back to their table.

Max blinked for a few seconds, dazed, then quickly gathered her stuff and followed Fang across the lunchroom, where she took a seat next to the girl she assumed was Charlie.

"Glad you could join us, Maxie. I've been trying to get Fang to head over there and get you all period, but he didn't want to leave me and Charlie alone," Iggy said with a nod to the blonde girl, who was looking at Max carefully. Max met her eye, and the other girl grinned, a gesture which Max returned cautiously.

Max just blinked back at Iggy, confused as to why she'd been pulled over here, and as to why Fang hadn't flirted at _all_ with the redheaded girl.

Fang seemed able to read her mind. "Lissa's a bitch. Way too many STD's." He stole a fry from Charlie's plate and met her eye for a split second; they chuckled between each other as if they were enjoying some private joke.

Charlie snorted a laugh. "We avoid her at all costs."

"Literally. I gave her twenty bucks to leave us alone for a day a while ago," Iggy said, toying with his lip ring and grinning as Max looked stunned.

"She's always secretly wanted to be one of the cool kids," Charlie added, slapping Fang's hand away as he tried to steal another fry. Charlie turned to Max. "So I heard that Fang harassed you for a while in history."

Max nodded, eying Fang carefully to make sure he wasn't going to comment.

Charlie laughed. "I'll apologize on his behalf. I don't think he can really help it."

Max smiled, watching as Fang ate his food in silence, apparently put off by speaking among a group larger than two people.

If these were going to be her friends, she was certainly in for an interesting year.

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><p>Fang rested his elbows on Charlie's shoulder's, smiling at the girl in the dim light of the janitor's closet they usually met up in during the last period of the day. "This is so much better than AP Biology," he said, leaning his forehead against hers.<p>

Charlie pulled back, not meeting Fang's eye. "Fang, um…"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"I, um… There's something I want to tell you." Charlie shifted from foot to foot and wouldn't meet Fang's eyes.

Fang raised both his eyebrows now. He had a pretty good idea of what she was going to say. "If this is about you liking girls, I already know." Fang cursed his lack of a filter. At least he didn't say _exactly_ what he was thinking.

She met his eyes for a split second, panicked, and Fang knew that what he said was true. But she shook her head. "No, I-I was gonna say that I couldn't go out on our date this Friday…"

This was the third date in a row she'd cancelled, but Fang didn't really care. She was going through a rough time. He smiled at her. "It's cool." He hoped she could tell that his words had a double meaning.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for all the amazing reviews. You guys make me want to write more :) **Credit to Alex (who is majorly awesome) for the title of the story**. A note: there's a part where Fang is a bit out of character (well, out of the character that I set for him). I have reasons for this that will become clear as you read more. On to the story!

**Last minute note: I'm not really happy with this chapter, but I've kept you guys waiting long enough, so... :P**

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><p>Max was definitely used to detention. At her old school, she got it for everything from inappropriate clothing (jeans with holes in the knees) to talking back (a teacher told her to be quiet; she told the teacher to be quiet). Needless to say, Max was the resident badass at her former school—always in trouble with teachers or some form of authority. Detention had almost been like an extra-curricular activity for her; she went there almost every day after school. People had wondered why she was home on time on the rare occasion that she was.<p>

Detention there had been simple: show up, stay for an hour, then you were free. Max had used it to catch up on lost sleep, as most kids did. She even had her own seat in the classroom; no one else dared sit there. Max liked to think that they were all scared of her, but she didn't want to ask.

Detention with Fang turned out to be a different story.

Max was the only one in the room for a while, then Mrs. Pierce had walked in. She gave Max a fleeting look of disapproval. (What, was she _not_ supposed to show up or something? Looks like Fang had that idea.) They waited in silence for a few minutes before the teacher spoke, "Do you know if Nick will be joining us?"

It took Max a minute to figure out who 'Nick' was. _Fang couldn't be his real name,_ she told herself, and shrugged. She'd seen him in her last period study hall (which was, fortunately, her only class with him on Tuesday and Thursday block days), but he'd disappeared with Charlie early in the period and had never come back, leaving her to deal with Iggy alone. "Dunno. I saw him—"

As if he could sense being spoken of, the door flew open (it smashed against the unguarded wall, chipping the paint) and Fang sulked in, looking tired. He glanced at Mrs. Pierce, discreetly rolled his eyes, and took the desk next to Max. "Hey babe," he whispered, leaning over the gap between the desks so his breath tickled her ear.

Max huffed loudly, ignoring him, and focused on the German homework she'd pulled out to work on. Monday had given her enough experience to learn that Fang _did_ call everyone "babe"—even their seventh period AP Biology teacher, Dr. Allen. She'd looked flustered, but let him "go to the bathroom" nonetheless. He'd never come back.

"Come on, no reason to ignore me, babe…" he trailed off, leaving Max with a strange sensation on the shell of her ear. It took her a minute to realize that he was _biting and licking _it. She shivered and gasped at the realization, and she heard Fang grin next to her, stopping when Mrs. Pierce looked their way. He leaned back closer than before when Mrs. Pierce went back to the papers she was grading. "We can just say we're working on that project, and the bitch won't suspect a thing," he murmured, starting to kiss her ear.

Max leaned in to his touch before she realized what she was doing, and he chuckled, bringing her back to her senses. This was _Fang_, the bad-boy who was just looking for a good lay, and she was playing _right_ into his hands. She jerked away from him, moving her desk a good foot away from Fang.

Mrs. Pierce looked up at the sound of the desk legs scraping on the tile floor. "Is there a problem, Ms. Martinez?"

Max looked over at the teacher and shook her head, smiling sweetly. "No problem at all, ma'am.

Mrs. Pierce nodded slowly, her eyes finding Fang's empty desktop. "Mr. Ride, get something to work on out, or I'll do so for you." She went back to her stack of papers.

Fang smirked and snatched a blank piece of paper from Max's desk, taking out a pen and scribbling something. She heard the sound of folding paper, then a folded piece of paper appeared on her desk. She unfolded it carefully, as if it would explode.

_The closet offer is still open ;)_

She stared at the note in horror. After all this, he had the _nerve_ to say _that_? Max scribbled a hasty response.

_Fuck you, Ride._

She realized as she saw Fang's smirking (and annoying, obnoxious, arrogant, sexy… This train of thought needed to stop) face that she'd said the wrong thing.

The paper appeared on her desk thirty seconds later, unfolded.

_I'll be happy to let that happen any time, babe._

If Max had learned one thing from hanging around Iggy, it was that mentioning Charlie would get this to stop. So that's just what she did.

_What about Charlie?_

Fang wasn't quick to respond to this one, and she'd thought he'd finally stopped passing the note when it appeared on her desk again, folded neatly and adorned with a drawn on rainbow and fish, with a note of '_So the bitch doesn't suspect._' Max unfolded it slowly, watching Fang from the corner of her eye. He was tracing the lines in his palm, but his mind seemed to be miles off.

Several lines were crossed out, but the final result was, _What about her?_

Max raised an eyebrow.

_Well, you're __dating__ her for one,_ she wrote, throwing the note at his head to catch his attention.

His response was immediate. _Was. _Max raised an eyebrow.

_What do you mean?_ She didn't bother folding the note, and passed it over to him, watching his thoughtful expression. He caught Max staring, and his emotionless mask went back up like _that_.

_She broke up with me._

Max struggled to keep her face emotionless. Charlie broke up with Fang? In Max's head, it always worked the other way. Fang wore the pants in the relationship; he decided whom he was going to date and when they were going to break up.

Mrs. Pierce spoke up as Max was about to write her response. "I'm leaving the room to make copies. I expect both of you to be in here and in your seats when I return, or there will be consequences." The teacher glared at the pair of them, then left the room. Fang, who apparently didn't care about these rules, was up and walking around the room the second the door closed.

"That's why I was late," he said, staring at the dull yellow walls like they would answer him. "We were talking."

Max told herself not to ask why they'd broken up, but it happened anyway. She cursed when she heard herself asking, "So why'd she break up with you?" Max wanted to bang her head against a wall. She didn't _care_ about this guy. His friends were okay, yeah, but he was a jerk, and definitely didn't deserve her time.

He turned back to stare at her, his fingers toying with his ear piercings. For a split second, Max saw the vulnerability on his face, but it soon hardened into his usual cocky smirk. "You seem awful interested, babe. You glad I'm free?" He winked and sent shivers down Max's spine (which she cursed herself for).

"No, Ride, I'm worried that—"

A sound came from outside the door, and Fang leaped across the room and clapped a hand over Max's mouth, the physical contact of his skin on her mouth making her body go into overdrive. "Hush, babe. The bitch is outside the door," he whispered into her ear, purposefully letting his tongue touch her skin on some of the syllables. Max nodded mutely, and he peeled his hand from her mouth, the lack of contact making Max shiver unconsciously.

They heard a voice from outside the door. "…Knight," a girl was saying. Fang was staring at the door in anticipation, and he unknowingly whispered, "Charlie".

Mrs. Pierce's voice answered. "Why are you outside my classroom?"

Charlie took a minute to answer. "Fan—I mean Nick is my ride home. I'm waiting for him to get out of detention." Her voice sounded unsure of itself, almost like she was asking Fang inside the room if it was okay that she was talking about him.

"…Alright then. They'll be let out in twenty minutes." Mrs. Pierce cleared her throat, and Fang was in his seat with his head down, pretending to be asleep by the time she reentered the room.

Max met Charlie's gaze for a split second before the door slammed shut; the short-haired girl grinned and waved.

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><p>Max watched Fang from the corner of her eye as he walked next to her down the hall, speaking in quiet tones to Charlie. Fang looked worried, and Charlie was just staring at the tiled floors. She wondered how it was possible for a guy to be <em>this<em> bi-polar. One second, he was all over her, talking about having sex in a closet with someone he barely knew, and the next he looked to be close to tears over a girl.

She honestly didn't want much to do with him anymore.

Once Ella found out that she knew Fang and Iggy (who were the boys she'd called "sex on a stick" the other day), she knew Ella would freak, and want Max to date Fang. Which was never going to happen. Ever.

Fang was a conceited jerk who only had one thing on his mind, and that one thing was something Max _didn't_ want to do with him. She could admit that he was hot; if she were younger, Fang would've been the main object of her affections. However, Max was old enough to realize exactly what she was to Fang: another girl that he could fuck. Another source of pleasure.

That was something she didn't want to be.

She'd tried being civil with Fang, and that had only gotten her more annoyed.

She'd tried ignoring him, which had resulted in him making out with the side of her face.

Max grinned as she left the building and headed for her car. She knew exactly what she had to do.

* * *

><p><em>As a note, this is happening the same day as the above section; it's just earlier in the day.<em>

Fang never got much sleep.

It didn't bother him that much; he could usually sleep through his first period class. On this particular Tuesday, however, Iggy kept him up through AP Spanish Lit, insisting that he had something important to talk about. Fang almost flat-out laughed. Like listening to Iggy's rants about Max interested him. He'd already made his mind up about her, and he didn't need Iggy to tell him that she was hot to know that. He didn't need to be told what he wanted.

But back to the sleeping thing.

The only person who _really_ knew what was going on was Charlie. Iggy thought it had something to do with his neighbors (which wasn't entirely false. Then again, it wasn't exactly true).

Only Charlie knew about the nightmares.

No, he didn't want to talk about it. End of discussion.

Last period study hall turned out to have Max in it. Fang grinned and winked at her as he entered with Iggy. He almost laughed at the outraged expression on her face.

After five minutes of sitting there and wondering whether he should flirt with Max when Charlie was sitting right next to him, he was pulled out of the room by his girlfriend. They ended up in the closet where they always met. Charlie hadn't spoken the entire time they'd walked down here.

Fang leaned against a wall and raised an eyebrow. "Something you wanted, doll? Or did you just wanna make out?" Charlie had always been 'doll'. She was never 'babe'.

Charlie glanced up at Fang, then stared down at her hands. "I can't do this anymore." She spoke so softly that Fang almost didn't hear her.

Fang shrugged off the wall and leaned forward to take her hands. He dipped his head down to meet her eyes. "Can't do what, doll?"

She pulled away from him and motioned between them. "_This_! It's killing me." She looked away from him.

Fang didn't know what to say. This meant they were breaking up, right? He made a concerned noise in the back of his throat, and she met his eyes.

She looked away before she spoke again. "I've been thinking a lot about what you said yesterday. About me liking…" She didn't need to finish for Fang to know what she was talking about. "You won't tell anyone, right?" she met his eyes for a second, pleading.

Fang smiled easily, stepping closer to her and kissing her forehead. "Wouldn't dream of it, doll."

* * *

><p>Fang smirked as he saw Max sitting attentively in her seat in AP US History the next morning. She wouldn't be so pristine when he was through with her, that was for sure. He took his seat and tangled his fingers in her hair. "Hey there, babe," he whispered right into her ear, knowing it would set her on edge like it did when they were in detention. He chuckled and finished pulling his fingers through her hair as a shiver ran down her spine.<p>

"Ride," she said, keeping careful control of her voice, from what Fang could tell.

"I'm looking forward to detention today, babe," he said in an even lower voice, beginning to kiss the back of her ear, loving the way she unconsciously shivered and leaned into his touch.

"I do have a name, you know," she said, not pulling away from him.

Fang raised an eyebrow. "And you can bet I'll remember it when you take me up on that closet offer."

Max rolled her eyes. "Please. Like I'll _ever_ take you up on that."

"Oh, I _know_ you will."

"Ms. Martinez, Mr. Ride, something you'd like to share with the class?" Mrs. Pierce asked, looking up from her computer, where she was calling roll.

Max smiled sweetly at the teacher. "Nothing, Mrs. Pierce."

The rest of the class passed (extremely) slowly (as always), for Fang as he plotted what he would do as soon as class let out.

Mrs. Pierce dismissed them for their next class, and Fang jumped up from his desk, waiting for Max to leave before he grabbed her arm while she was at her locker.

He leaned forward and whispered, "Come with me," as he closed her locker and picked up her backpack and slung it over his shoulder, still keeping hold of her arm.

He pulled her into the hall closet which he had claimed for his own and shut the door behind them, smirking before turning around to face Max.

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "What the _hell_ do you want?"

* * *

><p>So. Don't worry. Nothing's going down in that closet. This story <em>is<em> rated T, after all.

If you read Hidden Moves, I'm sorry. Joey's not.


	3. Chapter 3

Like I said: nothing shady is going down in that closet. Well… Nothing that's worse than what I've written in other stories. Fang was being all over Max last chapter because he was tired. I wrote the majority of this at about two in the morning, and I'm too lazy to proofread. So bear with me. Now let's get on with this.

Also, to reviewer superfly615243: your reviews make me laugh every single time I read them. Please never stop existing.

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><p>Fang slung Max's backpack to the floor and took a step closer to her, pressing her up against the wall of the small janitor's closet. Max raised an eyebrow, silently asking her question again, but Fang didn't answer.<p>

He kissed her instead.

Max took a deep breath through her nose and tried to force herself to pull away, but her body was _not_ listening to her thoughts. Instead, her eyes closed and she leaned back against him, returning the kiss. She felt him chuckle as he tilted his head and pressed closer to her, and _ohgod_ this needed to stop _right now_, but he tasted like cinnamon gum and Coke and she just _couldn't stop._

Fang pulled back after a time, and Max might have actually whimpered, but she would never admit it. He started kissing his way up her jaw to her ear, where he whispered, "See, babe? This isn't so bad…" He kissed his way back down to her mouth, pressing even closer to her. Max threaded her fingers in his hair, tugging and pulling at it, causing Fang to smile briefly against her mouth.

All of a sudden, Max was aware of the warm hand that had worked its way up her shirt, and the enormity of the situation came crashing down on her. She had _just_ told herself that she would never get involved with this son of a bitch, and here she was making out with him in a closet.

She untangled her hands from his hair and moved them to his chest, shoving him off her. "What the _hell_ is your problem?" she whisper-yelled, breathing heavily. She forced herself to stare at his nose. Not at his lust-filled eyes. Not at his swollen, red lips.

Fang panted, just staring at her. He backed up to the other side of the closet, keeping his arms at his sides. "I—"

She didn't let him finish. "Why don't you just fuck off, Ride?" She grabbed her backpack from the floor and stormed off to their next class, hating the way her lips tasted like cinnamon and Coke when she licked them, and hating even more that she liked it.

* * *

><p>Max stormed into her AP Language class, ignoring the way the teacher (and the rest of the class) was staring at her and took her seat next to Iggy in the back row, who looked over and raised an eyebrow. Max shook her head and nodded to the front of the classroom, where Mrs. Brown was giving notes, but had stopped to look disapprovingly at Max.<p>

"Care to explain, Ms. Martinez?" Mrs. Brown asked as Max took out a pen and paper to copy down the notes.

Max looked up. "Not really." She started copying down the notes when she noticed that class hadn't resumed.

Looking up, Max saw that Mrs. Brown was staring her down. "Ms. Martinez, if you don't explain where you were, I'll have to assume that you were doing something illegal."

Max sat back in her chair and raised an eyebrow. "Okay." Honestly, she was too pissed off to care at this point. Making out with Fang should be counted as illegal, anyway, if it made her feel like this.

Mrs. Brown glared at her. "Because you're a new student, I'm going to let you off _this time_. But don't let it happen again."

Max rolled her eyes and copied down the notes, tuning out the lecture on what a warrant was.

Iggy passed her a sloppily folded piece of paper a few minutes later, and she opened it when the teacher turned around to write on the board.

_Explain,_ it read.

Max rolled her eyes. _And if I don't want to?_ She passed it back to him, pretending to look attentive when Mrs. Brown turned back to address them and point at something she'd written on the board.

The note reappeared on her desk a few minutes later. _Where's Fang, then?_

_In a closet, nursing his wounds._ Max folded the note back up and slid it onto Iggy's desk when Mrs. Brown wasn't looking their way.

Iggy snorted and scribbled a response, throwing the note into her lap. _I take it he tried something on you?_

Max was about to write a response when the bell dismissing them for lunch rang, and everyone began packing up. Just how long had she been in that closet with Fang, anyway? All her classes were an hour and a half long, and she'd only been in here for forty-five minutes, at the most…

Damn.

Max folded her (almost non-existent) English notes, crammed them (along with Iggy's note) into her back pocket, and slung her backpack over one shoulder before following Iggy out of the classroom.

He turned on her as soon as they were in the hallway. "What did he do? And what did _you_ do?"

"He kissed me, and I told him to fuck off." Max crammed several of her books into her locker and grabbed the ones she needed for her afternoon classes before heading to the lunchroom with Iggy.

Iggy barked a laugh and shoved open the double doors to the cafeteria, letting Max in ahead of him. "You told Fang to fuck off? That's great."

Max raised an eyebrow and turned to face him as they walked towards their table, where Charlie was, surprisingly, already sitting. Max would have thought that she'd stop sitting with them since she'd broken up with Fang. "Why is it so funny?" Max sat next to Charlie, who smiled at the pair, and Iggy sat across from them.

"Because no one has _ever_ told him that before. I mean, it's almost an _honor_ to have Fang go after you, so telling him to back off is just… Man, that's rich…" Iggy shook his head and toyed with his lip ring, watching Max and laughing to himself.

Charlie looked between the two after taking a bite of her school-hamburger and reminding Max that she needed to go buy her own, however disgusting it may be. "What happened?"

Iggy grinned. "Fang kissed Max, and she told him to fuck off. He's apparently in the hall closet 'nursing his wounds,' as Maxie put it."

Charlie raised an eyebrow, giving Max an appraising look. "Maybe you should go check on him, Ig?" she asked, turning back to the blond.

He made a sound that resembled a whine. "But I went and got him _last _time, and he punched me!" Charlie met Iggy's eyes with an unreadable look, and Iggy sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine. But we're talking about this later." With one last look between the two girls, Iggy left from the table.

"I'm worried about him," Charlie mumbled when Iggy was out of earshot.

Max looked over at her. "Fang?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He's—never mind." She stopped herself quickly and stared off into space.

Max eyed Charlie carefully, wondering what she had been about to say. She stood back from the table, remembering that she needed to buy her lunch. When Max returned from buying her (disgusting) school-hamburger, Iggy was back without Fang.

"He left," Iggy said, answering Max's unspoken question as she sat down.

"Where did he go?" Max asked, unwrapping her hamburger and casting it a tentative glance.

Iggy and Charlie shrugged in unison. "Dunno." Iggy messed with his lip ring, which seemed to be a nervous habit of his.

"He does that sometimes," Charlie said around a bite of hamburger. Max didn't get how she could actually eat the thing; she could hardly stand the smell.

"So…" Iggy started, looking across at Max with a hopeful smile. "Are you gonna eat that?"

* * *

><p>Charlie swore she didn't mean to set her chemistry notebook on fire. She really didn't. It just kind of… happened. Max walked past and smiled at her before sitting between Iggy and Fang and slapping Iggy for saying something stupid, and then everything smelled like burning paper and melting ink.<p>

"_Shit!_" Charlie yelled, throwing her notebook to the floor and stomping on it to put out the fire. She knelt down to take in the damage; almost the entire notebook had been consumed by the flames. All of her notes were ruined. Fuck.

"Miss Knight, while I admire your ability to set objects on fire, that was not the point of this lab," Mr. Skipper, the teacher for their study hall said, kneeling next to Charlie; she'd been making up a lab she missed for Chemistry during 8th period study hall the next day.

Charlie smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Mr. Skipper. It won't happen again."

The teacher laughed. "Sure it won't. Clean this up, and I'll excuse you from the lab, alright? I don't think you can do it without your notebook." He looked pointedly at the remains of her composition book, and Charlie laughed nervously.

When Mr. Skipper had left and Charlie had started cleaning up her notebook from the floor, she was joined by Iggy, Fang, and Max, who all seemed to be laughing at her. She glared up from her spot on the floor. "What?"

Iggy snickered behind his hand and knelt down to help her clean up while Max and Fang turned off the burner she'd been using. "And how did this happen?"

Charlie glanced at Max for a split second before standing and walking over to the trash can with Iggy. "I got distracted."

He raised an eyebrow and looked back over his shoulder at Max, who was sitting back in her seat, reading and ignoring the way Fang was staring at her from across the table; he'd been leaving her alone since the incident on Wednesday. "When are you going to tell her?" He wiped his hands on his jeans, getting the ashes off, and walked to the back of the room to get the broom and dustpan to finish cleaning up.

"What are you talking about?" Charlie didn't meet his eyes as he swept the floor and she held the dustpan.

Iggy leaned against the broom. "Fang likes her, you know. And I'm pretty sure she's straight."

"Yeah, I know. Can we talk about something else? Like the Pre-Calc homework that I don't understand." Charlie dumped the contents of the dustpan into the trash bin and walked back to the table where they always sat during study hall. She got out her Pre-Calc book and opened to the page with her homework on it, giving Iggy a pointed glare when he started to say something that she was sure was about Max.

Speaking of Max, she looked up from her book when Charlie sat down. She smiled teasingly, raising an eyebrow. "How'd that happen?"

Charlie cursed herself as she blushed bright red. Thankfully, Iggy stepped in. "Didn't you see? The fire just like, jumped out and ate her notebook. It was crazy. What'd you put on that thing, Charlie, hairspray?" Iggy grinned mischievously, but Charlie could tell he was giving her his 'you _so_ owe me' look.

Charlie laughed and went back to concentrating on her homework, happy that a crisis had been averted for the time being.

* * *

><p>You know, when Max told Fang to fuck off, she didn't think he'd actually <em>listen<em>. She figured she'd be dealing with him and all of his stupid attractiveness for the rest of the year. But no. She'd _finally _gotten rid of him.

It was _wonderful_.

There were no stupid comments on the shorts she wore that day, (It was eighty degrees! In October! Max swore she was never leaving Arizona.) no making out with the side of her face, and no mentions of fucking in some hall closet. And except for the blatant staring at her all day, he made no effort to communicate with her. She could get used to this.

She could deal without the staring, though. All he did when he was around her was stare at her. And it wasn't just a curious stare. It was the look that he'd given her right before he'd kissed her in that closet. But it was constant. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be freaked out or angry or if she was supposed to like it. Because she definitely felt all three.

Max, being Max, decided that she was going to confront Fang about it after school that day. She saw the back of his head leaving from the front of the school doors, and she ran to catch up with him. "Fang!" She yelled, turning his head and about twenty others. She glared at the curious on-lookers as she caught up to him.

He smirked as she stopped in front of him. "I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away, babe," he said, winking and running a hand through his hair. Max swore she heard a few girls sigh behind her.

Max glared. "This is about you staring at me."

He raised an eyebrow. "It's a free country."

She narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to him. "I told you to fuck off and I meant it, Ride."

He stared back at her, keeping his expression emotionless, then he backed up from her. He grinned widely, and Max was stunned for a second as her stomach churned and she felt her face heating up. He looked so… different when he smiled like that… She might be able to stand him if he smiled like that all the time… "You got it, babe."

And she was right back to hating his guts.

* * *

><p>Once again, credit to Alex for the title ^-^<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Hey all ^-^ You have my family and a wonderful thing called OmmWriter to thank for this chapter. It's a long story.

So you guys think I have this all planned out, right? Ha. Planning's for losers. This chapter happened all in one night with no previous planning. But I'm proud of it.

Also, telling me to update will get you guys absolutely _no_where. So don't even bother.

Also, if you see a word that's randomly in all caps, it's supposed to be in _italics._

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><p>Fang wasn't sure if it was possible to hate anyone more than he hated his aunt and uncle. They never listened to him, never gave him what he wanted, hell, they didn't even <em>look <em>at him when he was around. It was like they _wanted _him to hate them. The only thing Fang could be thankful for was that they'd never decided to have a kid, so he didn't have to put up with another snotty member of the Henson family.

He supposed he could do a little more to be the nephew they'd "always wanted" or whatever, but really, what else was he supposed to spend the money his parents left him on, other than cigarettes and fake IDs? Well, he could think of a few things, but why on earthwould he spend all his money on college visits and food, when his legal guardians were so willing to do so for him?

Back to his aunt and uncle; Fang was currently sitting at their dinner table, tapping his fingers restlessly. He needed to get over to Iggy's-It was Friday night and they were planning on getting completely _wasted_. He needed it after dealing with Max all week.

Fang rolled his eyes as his aunt sat across the table from him, her husband standing behind her and placing his hands on the back of her chair in a stance that Fang didn't think was threatening at all. She cleared her throat and Fang met her eyes, raising his eyebrows in the universal "What?" gesture.

"We'd like to talk to you, Nick," his uncle said, tightening his grip on the back of the chair.

Fang held back the comment about how his name was _Fang_ not "Nick" and how they _obviously_ wanted to talk to him if they sat him down at the kitchen table with those goddamn (fake) concerned expressions. He might be rude to teachers at school, but he felt like he'd be disrespecting his parents if he talked back to his mom's sister and her husband. And no matter what anyone said, Fang loved his parents, so he kept his hate for what was left of his extended family bottled up. "What?" He rested his jaw on the heel of his hand and toyed with his earrings, giving his aunt a bored expression.

"Nick, we see the way you've been acting lately..." His aunt started, and he internally rolled his eyes. This again? _Really_? "And we were wondering if there was something wrong. Maybe something you'd like to talk about?"

Fang wondered what they'd do if he told them what was really wrong: that he hated them, that he fucking missed his _biological_ parents, and wanted them back and if he could go back in time and do anything differently, he wouldn't have picked up that first goddamn cigarette.

They'd probably send him to a therapist.

So he stayed silent instead, staring back at the fake concern in his aunt's eyes and waiting for her to break eye contact. She did after a minute, tinting lightly pink before Fang spoke up. "I'm good, actually. I have to go now. I'll be back tomorrow." He stood from the table and grabbed his keys before leaving, ignoring his uncle calling after him.

* * *

><p>Iggy grinned when he opened the door for Fang to come in. "Dude, what took you so long? My parents left for San Fran <em>hours<em> ago. I texted you, didn't you get it?"

Fang rolled his eyes and nodded, running his hand through his overlong hair. He needed a haircut soon. "Got held up by Susan and John." His aunt and uncle; he'd never call them by just their first names to their faces, but around everyone else, they were Susan and John.

Iggy frowned, noticing the tightness around his friend's eyes. "You wanna talk about it?"

Fang shrugged, heading into the kitchen where he knew Iggy would have already set out the alcohol. "Not really." He poured himself a cup of whatever was in that bottle (Fang didn't bother to read it; as long as it would get him drunk) and waited for Iggy to do the same.

They clacked their cups together and drank.

* * *

><p>"So Max, how was your first week?" Ella asked her older sister, leaning forward on Max's bed and smiling excitedly.<p>

Max raised an eyebrow at her sister and set her math homework down. "Why do you wanna know?" Max knew her sister, and that look didn't mean anything good.

Ella twirled a strand of hair around her finger and tried to look innocent. "Oh, no reason... I just heard that you and one Mr. Fang Ride had a little incident in the hallway closet on the second floor." She sent Max her widest grin and bounced a little on the bed, waiting for details.

If Max had been eating something, she would have spit it all out at that very moment. "What? Where did you hear that?" She cursed herself for blushing beet red.

"Oh, a little birdie told me. I want _details_, Maxy." Ella grinned mischievously.

"Um, well... There's not really much to tell. Fang's a jerk, so..."

Her sister frowned. "What do you mean, 'There's not much to tell'? You guys made out, what isn't there to tell about that?"

Max rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. I was getting annoyed at him in history, so he dragged me to a hall closet, and he kissed me and then I told him to fuck off. Happy?"

"Well why'd you tell him that? He's hot and he's _interested_ in you, Max."

"Yeah, well, he's also a jerk. So." Max looked back down at her homework in clear dismissal of her younger sister, who frowned, but left.

Why was Max getting the feeling like she shouldn't have told Ella any of that?

* * *

><p>Fang sat down hard onto Iggy's couch (halfway on top of Iggy, but did that really matter?) and sighed loudly, taking a long drink from his fifth? or maybe it was his sixth, drink. "Ig, why does my life <em>suck<em> so much?" He rested his head back against Iggy's shoulder, staring up at the ceiling.

Iggy, who'd had significantly _less_ to drink and was already sobering up (this was more for Fang than anything), sighed and shook his head, knowing what was going to come next. The ranting always started around the sixth drink. "I dunno, Fang."

"I mean, I didn't DO anything wrong, right? But my parents are _fucking_ dead, Susan and John _fucking_ hate me, and I can't get a _fucking_ girl to like me." Fang took another drink and sighed sadly. "I didn't do anything to deserve this, right babe?"

Iggy rolled his eyes at the 'babe', but shook his head and took a sip of his water. He needed to stay sober through this. Who _knows_ what would happen if they were both drunk. "No, man, you didn't do anything."

"Then why does everything _suck_ so much? If I didn't do anything, then why did my parents die? Why did Max tell me to fuck off? Why did Charlie break up with me? Why doesn't anybody fucking _like_ me?" Fang took another long drink and frowned as he finished it off.

Lightly pushing Fang off him, Iggy sighed and wondered if the hysterical sobbing was going to be a part of _this_ drunken breakdown. "Hey, I like you. You're cool."

Fang rested his head against Iggy's shoulder again and sighed dejectedly, examining the bottom of his cup. "Babe, I don't have any more of my drink," he said, completely ignoring Iggy's previous comment. He shoved the plastic cup in his friend's face. "Can you go get me more? I don't want to."

Iggy plucked the cup from Fang's hand and got up to throw it away. Fang looked offended as his friend sat back down.

"Hey! I said I wanted more, not for you to throw it away." Fang frowned, but rested his head against Iggy's shoulder again.

"You don't need any more to drink. Why don't you sleep?" Iggy mentally crossed his fingers that his friend would listen and sleep, even if it was against his shoulder or on his lap or something.

Fang sat up. "How can I sleep when my life _sucks_ so much?"

Iggy sighed. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>Max groaned as her alarm went off at six on Saturday morning. She'd forgotten to turn it off. Lovely. She hit the off button lazily and rolled over, hoping to fall back asleep.<p>

She woke up again two hours later when Ella burst into her room, an excited smile on her face and her cell phone in hand. Max sat up and rubbed her eyes, glaring at Ella. "What the hell do you want? It's 8 o'clock, Ells."

"Why didn't you tell me Fang and Iggy gave you their phone numbers?"

Max laid back down, hoping to herself that Ella wasn't about to do what it sounded like she was. "It didn't strike me as a pressing matter. Now can you please let me sleep?"

Ella shook her head and grinned once again. "Nope! Come on, get up and talk to Iggy for me!"

Resisting the urge to facepalm, Max sat up and rolled her eyes, knowing that Ella wouldn't give up until she got her way. "Okay, fine."

Ella grinned and dialed the number from the piece of paper (how she'd found it, Max didn't want to know) and handed the phone to Max, who pressed call. Why was she even _doing_ this? Ella was perfectly capable of talking on the phone.

The phone rang seven times, and Max was sure it was going to go to voicemail. "Ells," she said, "It's eight o'clock on a Saturday. He's not-" she almost finished, but was cut off by a voice that was definitely _not_ Iggy.

"What the _fuck_ do you want?"

Max hoped she didn't look or sound too angry at who she assumed was Fang on the other line. "What are you doing answering Iggy's phone?"

She heard a sharp intake of breath on the other line, then a sigh. "What are you doing calling at fucking 8 o'clock?" He sounded... hung-over, to be honest.

"You can ask my sister about that one."

"This is Max, right?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Who else would it be? My idiot sister wanted to talk to Iggy."

She heard a low chuckle, then a muffled _ow_. "Yeah, he's asleep on top of me. Have your sister call back later." Fang hung up, and Max handed Ella back her phone.

"Iggy was asleep. But you can call back later, according to a hung-over Fang. Can I please sleep now?"

Ella stood from where she'd been sitting on the edge of Max's bed. "Ugh, fine."

* * *

><p>Fang rubbed his hand over his eyes and groaned. Of <em>course<em> he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep after Max called. He really just wanted some Advil and all the lights to stop existing.

Iggy, whose head was resting on his stomach, stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes a minute later, sitting up slowly and running his hands through his now-floppy hair. "Were you yelling at someone?" He stretched and ended up falling off the couch, where they'd fallen asleep.

"Yeah. Max called you and I have a hangover."

That was explanation enough for Iggy, who winced in sympathy for Max. "Do you want some Advil?" He got up from the floor when Fang nodded and grabbed the bottle from where he'd set it out the previous night in preparation for this. He tossed the bottle to Fang, who dry swallowed two of the pills while Iggy started some coffee. He filed the fact that Max had called him away for later examination.

"Thanks, Ig," Fang said, leaning back against the arm of the couch and closing his eyes.

Iggy came back into the living room and started putting things back where they belonged; after Fang's emotional breakdown, he'd let out anger by trashing the living room. "It's fine, Fang. You're welcome over here anytime."

Fang smiled to himself. "So what happened last night?"

* * *

><p>So proud of this chapter, guys. So proud.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Hello all ^-^ I normally update around the middle of the month. Sorry about the delay. I had school and such. AP classes need to die. But, good news, by this time next month, it will be summer break! That means a lot of updates! Yay!

This chapter was inspired by many things, including health and wellness class at school, and Alex's immaturity/apparent inability to stop calling people (read as: me) 'babe'.

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><p>"Fang, dude, Max didn't call me on her phone," Iggy said as they walked out to Fang's beat up old car.<p>

Fang raised an eyebrow. "How d'you figure that?"

Iggy noticed the thoughtful expression on Fang's face and prepared himself for the worst. He jerked the rusted passenger side door to Fang's car open. "I called the number back and got an earful of screaming girl."

His friend barked a laugh. "Speaking of girls, where's Charlie?"

"Mr. Skipper held her after for a lesson on how to use the burner things right. She lit _another_ notebook on fire today in study hall while you were skipping." Iggy rolled his eyes and started to climb into Fang's car, but the other boy held up a hand. He nodded across the parking lot to a girl leaning against Max's car, looking bored.

"Isn't that Max's sister?" Fang asked, and when Iggy nodded, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the lot at her. "Hey! Red shirt! Black jeans!" Max's sister (Ella?) looked up, startled. "Yeah, you! Come over here." Fang motioned her over and the two friends pretended not to notice the blush covering her neck and face. When she reached them, Fang smirked and winked at her. "You're Ella, right?"

"Um…" she said, then nodded quickly.

Iggy smiled brightly and slammed Fang's car door shut. "Max called me on your phone."

Again, she nodded.

Fang chuckled. "Well, I can see why Max talks so much; she's gotta make up for how much you don't." The comment was meant to get Ella to say something, and that's exactly what it did.

"No, um, I talk! A lot, actually, you guys just, um… surprised me."

Iggy laughed. "Of course we did."

Fang walked around to the hood of his car, where Ella was standing, and sat down _very_ close to her, causing her eyes to widen to the size of dinner plates. "So, Ells, babe, think you could do me a _little_ favor?" Iggy rolled his eyes, choosing to study the pavement rather than watch Fang's shameless and meaningless flirting.

Ella nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, um, of course…" she said, staring at Fang's eyes.

He smiled seductively and leaned closer to her. "Could you give me your sister's phone number? I'm afraid she has mine, but I don't have hers."

Ella nodded immediately and took the sharpie that Fang pressed into her hand, quickly writing down the ten digits on his arm.

Fang pressed a quick kiss to Ella's cheek. "Thanks, Ells. Now, d'you mind not telling Max about this? I don't think she'll appreciate it very much."

Once again, Ella nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, o—of course. But I should probably go so she doesn't um… see me over here, or anything." Ella handed Fang back his sharpie, and he made a point to hook his ankle around hers and wink at her before she hurried back to Max's car.

Fang stood from the hood of his car and shoved the sharpie into his back pocket. He stalked to the front door of his car and jerked the door open. He sat down, and Iggy looked over.

"Was all that really necessary?" he asked with one eyebrow raised.

Fang put on his best innocent expression. "All what?"

"The flirting. She would have given you Max's number even if you hadn't done all that."

Fang shrugged and licked his lips, grimacing. "Ugh, that girl wears _way_ too much foundation." He wiped his mouth on his un-sharpied arm and started the car. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

><p>Text from: +19285557486<p>

Hey there ;)

* * *

><p>Max stared in confusion at her phone. Who on <em>earth<em> could be texting her? She didn't give her phone number out to just anyone, and her friends from back home _always_ called. Not to mention "928" wasn't the Colorado area code.

* * *

><p>Text to: +19285557486<p>

Who is this?

* * *

><p>Max didn't have to wait for the response, because her phone practically went off before she sent the message.<p>

* * *

><p>Text from: +19285557486<p>

Who do you think, babe? ;)

* * *

><p>Max's face paled. Only Fang called her babe. How the <em>hell<em> did he get her phone number? The only thing she could think of was when she called Iggy from Ella's phone. But how would _he_ have gotten her phone number from that?

* * *

><p>Text to: +19285557486<p>

Is your grammar always that good? And did Ella give you my phone number?

* * *

><p>Why was she even humoring him? He didn't deserve it. He probably just wanted to know if they could hang out in some closet somewhere. Ugh.<p>

Max saved Fang's number in her phone just as she received another text.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<p>

You know it is ;) I was wondering, I've gotta take this class at the Y. It's at four today. Be there.

* * *

><p>Max raised an eyebrow, sending back a questioning text to Fang, but he never responded. She glanced at the clock: 2:45 PM. She still had a while to decide whether or not to go to this "class". It wasn't like she had anything else to do, but if she showed up with him, people would assume that they went to whatever it was as a couple, and who <em>knew<em> what he was trying to get her into. It could be a teen pregnancy class for all she knew.

She sighed again and glanced at her phone, quickly sending Fang a text that said, "One good reason why I should come. Be serious." She might have told him to fuck off earlier, but he had _listened_. That was something, right? And she had a choice about this. She didn't have to go if she didn't want to.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<p>

1. You don't have to participate 2. I'll be there 3. There's a very roomy closet;) 4. You'll know where I work if you come 5. I honestly want you there.

* * *

><p>The sincerity of… one of the five reasons definitely surprised Max. She wasn't expecting that from him.<p>

She glanced at the clock: 3 PM. It wasn't like she had anything else to do on a Saturday afternoon; she'd already finished her homework that morning.

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<p>

I'll meet you in front of the Y at 3:45.

* * *

><p>3:45 rolled around, and Max parked in front of the Y, glancing up to the steps to see Fang smoking in front of the "no smoking" sign. She rolled her eyes. Why had she agreed to this, again? And why did she find the fact that he smoked a little bit <em>too<em> attractive?

She got out and slammed the door of her car, and Fang's head snapped over in her direction. He stamped out his cigarette and headed in her direction. He looked the same as always, dressed in torn up jeans, a tight black v-neck t-shirt and his heavy looking black lace up boots. He reached her and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up and toying with his earrings before grinning for a split second, making himself look like a completely different person. He caught himself and his usual arrogant smirk showed up on his face once again. "Hey babe, thanks for coming."

Max rolled her eyes and smiled politely. "I'd appreciate it if you called me by my actual name. Cause you know, _I have one._"

He smiled at her, causing his whole face to light up like it had when he grinned, and a small laugh escaped his lips. "Sorry, ba—Max. I'm just used to it. You know."

Max rolled her eyes, taking a moment to study his face, because _damn_ he looked good when he smiled. "Yeah, sure. Come on, I don't want to be late for this class that you're _dragging _me to." She started to head inside, but Fang caught her arm before she could make it to the first step.

"Wait, Max."

She looked back at him and raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the butterflies filling her stomach at the way he pronounced her name.

"Um… Thanks." He met her eyes with the word and leaned forward like he was going to kiss her, but caught himself and pulled back at the last second. He grabbed her hand and pulled her inside, through a few hallways, and to a room near the indoor swimming pool with multiple CPR mannequins and teenagers inside. As they entered the room, Max discreetly pulled her hand from Fang's, not wanting the people inside to get the wrong idea.

An official looking man, wearing a red t-shirt and carrying a clipboard, approached Fang. He looked at Fang and Max, then down at the clipboard. "Names?"

"F… I mean, Nick Ride. And, um, this is my friend. She's just gonna observe, if that's okay." He crossed his arms and shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking between Max and the other teenagers in the room.

Max saved this moment forever in her head; Fang was nervous. She watched his eyes flicker to the other teenagers in the room, his eyes lingering on one redhead boy in particular. Was he _scared_?

The man looked Max over and nodded, motioning to two chairs at the back of the room. "We're starting in ten minutes; you sit there."

Max and Fang meandered to the back of the room, Fang carefully skirting around the redheaded boy's line of sight.

"So, what's with the redhead?" Max asked, sitting down.

Fang tensed almost unnoticeably. "It's a long story." Max decided that she liked and missed the open, happy Fang that had smiled, laughed, and grabbed her hand, sending numbing sparks up her hand as he dragged her through the halls of the Y.

The other teens in the classroom seemed to have noticed them by now. The girls were taking short appreciative glances at Fang over their shoulders, trying to be inconspicuous, and the redhead boy was openly staring.

Fang closed his eyes for a minute then stared down at Max. "Is he coming over here?"

She nodded as the redhead walked over and leaned against the wall next to Max. He crossed his arms and spoke, smirking in a way that reminded her of Fang. "Well, what do we have here?" His voice made Max want to slap that stupid smirk off his face.

Fang winced. "Fuck off," he growled, not meeting the redhead's gaze.

The boy put his hands up in surrender to Fang. "Whoa there, Nick. I was talking to your girl." He smiled charmingly down at Max and extended his hand to her. "I'm Casey, what's your name?"

Max glared at his hand. "Afraid I'm gonna side with _Nick_ on this one," she said, glaring up at him and crossing her arms.

Casey frowned for a split second, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "Oh, does Nick have another girlfriend? Hope this one's not a d—"

"I said fuck_ off,_ Casey," Fang growled, taking a step closer to him and finally making eye contact.

The red t-shirt guy looked in their direction. "Is there a problem, boys?"

Casey grinned at him. "Not at all, Mr. Hudson." He turned a harsh glare to Fang when the apparent instructor had looked away. "You'd better watch your back, _Ride,"_ he spat, then walked back to the other teens on the other side of the room.

Fang sat in the chair to Max's left and rested his head against the wall. He sighed loudly, mumbled something about not knowing how anyone knew about "it", and ran his hands over his face. "You have to _promise_ you won't tell anyone about this," he said, looking over at her with a slightly pleading expression.

"I don't think I can, since I don't really know what's going on…"

He sighed again. "That's Casey Soren. A jerk among jerks. An old friend from middle school."

Max raised an eyebrow, watching the redhead flirt with a blonde girl across the room. "He wasn't acting that friendly with you."

"We're not friends anymore. I 'stole' Charlie from him in seventh grade, then he apparently found out that she was—I don't even know how he figured that out... Thank you for coming. I know I've been a dick."

"No shit. But you're welcome." Max smiled at Fang and he smiled back briefly before beginning to mess with his earrings.

"Anyway, after I 'stole' Charlie from him, I became the target of his teasing… I wasn't… like I am back then. I basically didn't have any friends other than Charlie for the end of seventh or eighth grade…"

Max frowned. "You shouldn't let him bother you." Why was she giving him this advice? Why did she even find herself _caring_? Oh, right, it was because this was the unguarded Fang. The one who held her hand, the one who talked to Charlie in hushed tones, the one who smiled and laughed and called her Max.

"Yeah, I know—" Fang seemed like he was going to say something else, but the instructor clapped his hands at the front of the room to announce the start of the CPR class. He smiled at her as he got up from his chair and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, whispered 'thank you' again, and went to sit cross-legged in front of a mannequin.

Max ignored the butterflies in her stomach and the lingering feeling of his lips on her skin. Those things weren't important.

As the class drug on, Max began to realize just why Fang had convinced her to come along. He must have known that Casey would be here, and he didn't want to face him alone. Max smiled at the thought. But wouldn't he rather have Charlie or Iggy with him? Max took out her phone and sent a quick text to Charlie (they'd exchanged numbers a while ago) and Iggy (he'd stolen her phone and programmed his number in).

* * *

><p>Text to: Charlie, Iggy<p>

Hey! Doing anything today?

* * *

><p>She heard back from Iggy immediately.<p>

* * *

><p>Text from: Iggy<p>

No. Nothing. At all. Why, do you wanna do something? I'm up for ANYTHING. I will come with you to get a mani-pedi, I'm so bored.

* * *

><p>Max almost laughed out loud and sent back a negative on the mani-pedi, but thanked him for the offer.<p>

Maybe Fang didn't want Iggy to know about the bullying thing? That was understandable; Fang did have a reputation, after all.

Charlie texted her back after a few minutes.

* * *

><p>Text from: Charlie<p>

Nope! What are you up to? Did you wanna hang out?

* * *

><p>That made <em>no<em> sense. Charlie would obviously know about the bullying, so he would have wanted _her_ along, not Max. But she wasn't busy today, so there weren't any scheduling conflicts. Maybe he just honestly wanted _her_ there.

Fang was _the_ most confusing boy Max had ever met.

* * *

><p>"So, all that making out with dummies—" Fang started, but Max interrupted.<p>

"Don't finish that thought. Please." She held up a hand and shook her head as they left the classroom, Fang carefully leaving after Casey, so he couldn't catch up to them.

He winked at her. "Too late, babe. I was thinking maybe—"

"Whatever you're about to suggest, my answer is no," Max said, cutting him off again.

He chuckled, shoulders with her as they left from the Y's front door. Max saw Fang tense from the corner of her eye as he spotted a maliciously grinning Casey at the bottom of the stairs. Nevertheless, Fang started down the stairs, and Max followed behind him. "You know, I meant it when I told you to fuck off, Casey," Fang said, reaching the bottom of the stairs and taking a menacing step towards the redhead.

Casey's malicious grin didn't fall from his face. "And I meant it when I said you should watch your back." His gaze turned to Max, and he practically licked his lips. "Looks like your taste in girls hasn't changed—maybe this one will actually want to kiss _you_."

Max's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, and Casey noticed.

"Ah, so this one doesn't know that Charlie's—"

"If you finish that sentence, Soren, I will pound your face so hard into this pavement—"

Casey laughed loudly. "Hey now, I'm not looking for a fight." He held up his hands and took a step back from Fang, still chuckling. "I just wanted to find out your girl's name."

Max tensed. She wasn't _anyone's_ girl. "I'm not his girl," she spat.

Casey took a step closer to Max, but Fang took a protective stance in front of her, causing Casey to back up. Max shoved Fang off, and Casey smirked. "Well, then maybe you're interested—"

"She isn't," Fang interrupted, stepping back behind Max and putting a hand on her back, pushing her towards her car. "Won't be seeing you, Soren. Have a terrible life." Fang didn't look back over his shoulder as he walked to Max's car, and when she risked a glance over her shoulder, he was gone.

"He's gone," Max announced, leaning against the driver side door of her car as Fang sat on the hood.

He visibly relaxed. "Sorry about him."

She shrugged. "I've had worse. But, um… you said I'd get to see where you worked."

Fang jerked his head towards the Y building. "That's the place, babe. That was a CPR refresher for all us lifeguards."

Max turned to face him full on. "You. A lifeguard?" She couldn't believe it. _He_ was a lifeguard? Of all the jobs to get… It wasn't even summer! "But it's not even close to summer."

He shrugged, staring at the pavement intently. "I gotta do it year-round. Don't really have a choice." He looked up and met her eye with a mischievous glint. "Why, you picturing me shirtless? Cause the view is _great_. Maybe we could practice some mouth-to-mouth in your car?" He winked and Max rolled her eyes for about the fiftieth time since she had met up with him that day.

"Actually, I was going to offer to drive you home if you didn't have a ride, but since you said that, I think I'll leave without you." Max laughed and grabbed her keys from her pocket and unlocked her car, opening the door. Fang jumped off the hood of her car and put a hand over hers, meeting her eyes and grinning for _way_ more than a split second.

Max swore she was about to melt, and then he spoke.

"Max. You don't _really _want to leave without me, do you?" His voice was low and his breath smelled like cigarettes and cinnamon, which was _really really _okay with Max, even though she hated the smell of smoke. His grin fell and was replaced by a smoldering look that should have been illegal, for all the ways it made her feel. He leaned his forehead against hers and started leaning in like he was going to kiss her, and their lips were just barely brushing when she nodded quickly and pulled back.

"Yeah, um… Yeah. Just, um… get in." She ran a hand over her face as Fang pulled back from her and sent her that _stupid_ arrogant smirk that made her heart flip-flop. He walked around the front of the car, whistling innocently. Fang opened his door and looked across the top of the car at her.

"Well, are we gonna go or not?"

Max shook her head, brought back to reality by the sound of his voice. She hadn't been daydreaming about him. Not at all. "Oh, um… Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

><p>^-^ Hope this chapter was worth the wait. There was originally a scene with Fang and Max in the car being all *yell yell* *angry kiss* and what not, but I decided against it. If you'd like to read said scene, figure out how to steal my computer and then you can read it.<p>

God the formatting for the texting is exhausting. So much clicking and highlighting and shift clicking and ugh. Never doing that again.

You should review! :D


	6. Chapter 6

Alex would like to assert his… authority, I suppose, in the area of calling me 'babe.' Both of us would like for the reviewers who've been calling me as much to stop.

Sorry about the wait. I have a job. And chores. And summer reading. And a laptop to buy. And several game systems.

There's some language in here. "Language" to me is obviously not the regular curse words, but offensive/derogatory terms. It's all in character and necessary for plot development.

I was going to send you all on a scavenger hunt for the deleted scene thing from last chapter, but again: way too lazy. Maybe next chapter. Or maybe someone will actually steal my laptop. *sigh* wishful thinking.

**To clear up some confusion, this story takes place in Arizona. Max moved there from Colorado.**

* * *

><p>"Nick, dear, we need to talk to you."<p>

Fang looked up from where he was texting Iggy and raised an eyebrow.

His aunt and uncle came into his room and shut the door quietly behind them. His uncle was holding a thick looking manila folder, which he was slapping against his leg nervously. "Your aunt and I have some… important information."

Fang sighed. "Okay?" Couldn't they see he was busy?

Susan sat on the edge of the bed and reached forward to take Fang's hand gently. He pulled it back at the last second, looking confused. "Nick, honey… it's about your parents. The—"

Her husband interrupted. "The police found more evidence surrounding how they died."

Fang stiffened and looked between his aunt and uncle, almost getting ready to run. "What?"

His aunt took a deep breath and this time successfully took Fang's hand and squeezed it. "Honey, it's… it's turned into a murder investigation. And… well," she motioned for Fang to be handed the folder.

John held the folder out to his nephew, who snatched it and jerked his hand away from his aunt. He flipped open the folder and was met with pictures of his mother, father, and his red-haired former best friend, Casey Soren.

With "Prime Suspect" listed under his picture.

* * *

><p>It was an understatement to say that Fang was pissed. Not that he was going to tell anyone, or even show it. Hardly anyone even knew what was going on, but it was good to know that no one knew what <em>really<em> happened that night…

He needed to talk to Casey.

In the meantime, it was back to pretending that his somewhat nice weekend with Max didn't happen at all. He was Fang, and he didn't show emotion. (Well, he did with Charlie, but that was different. She _knew._ Max didn't know anything.)

Fang was, as usual, fashionably late to AP US History on Monday morning. Thankfully, they had a sub and he hadn't called roll yet, so Fang just pretended he was on time.

Iggy greeted him with a nod before going back to eye fucking just about every girl in the room and winking at them when he was caught. That included Max. Fang almost slapped the back of his head to make him stop, but then he reminded himself that he didn't care.

Right. Not caring.

Max turned in her chair when she noticed that Fang was there, smiling at him. "Hey," she greeted, actually meeting his eyes for once.

Fang just stared back, unblinking before letting his head fall to his desk, ignoring her and the little smile she had on her face.

He could hear Iggy and Max talking around him.

"I'm sure he's just tired." Iggy.

Max paused before answering, and he could _feel_ her stare boring into the top of his head. "Yeah, I'm sure that's what it is." She didn't sound too convinced. Iggy didn't call her out on it.

"What are we supposed to be doing, anyway?"

Fang imagined that Max shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe read something? Fill out a packet… Doesn't look like anyone else is doing it."

A new voice, a girl, spoke up this time, speaking quietly like she was sharing the juiciest secret she'd ever heard. "Hey Iggy, did you like, hear about Charlie Knight?" Her voice grated on Fang's ears, sounding too close to fingernails scratching a chalkboard to be human.

Fang picked his head up at the mention of Charlie and studied the girl who was whispering about her. She was blonde, and appeared to be one of Lissa's drones. (They certainly dressed similarly.)

Iggy gave her a 'go on' look, but Fang could see the worry behind his eyes as he glanced over at Fang.

The girl leaned down to Iggy's ear and whispered quite loudly so everyone around her (including Max) could hear. "She's… gay." She spat the word, like it was going to burn her mouth.

Iggy raised an eyebrow and eyed her up and down, toying with his lip ring absently. "Why are you telling _me_?"

The girl huffed. "She's your friend, right? Why _wouldn't_ you wanna know? It's gross and now you and Fang can like…" she paused as if she'd forgotten what she was talking about, then perked up and continued, "come hang out with like, Lissa and me and everyone else!"

Fang narrowed his eyes at the girl. "You say one more word about Charlie to anyone else, and I'll make sure _everyone_ in school knows every dirty detail about you," he practically growled, causing the girl to spin around on her heel and stare at him wide eyed.

"O-okay," she stuttered, before stumbling back to her seat on the other side of the room.

Fang glared at nothing in particular before putting his head back down. How the _hell_ had everyone found out? Charlie certainly hadn't come out yet. (As far as Fang knew, she wasn't even _going_ to come out during high school.) The only other person who knew was…

Casey. Ugh.

* * *

><p>Max walked with Iggy and Fang into the lunchroom from their shared AP English class, eyes finding Charlie almost immediately. She was hunched over at their usual table, staring at the tabletop and looked either angry or close to tears—Max couldn't tell. Fang sat next to her, lightly bumping his shoulder into hers, and she looked up at him.<p>

"Hey," Fang said, smiling lightly. "How's it going?"

Charlie sighed angrily. "How the _fuck_ do they know?"

Max was taken aback; she'd never heard Charlie curse. She kind of assumed the girl didn't use profanity, but now that she thought about it, it seemed kind of like a requirement for hanging out with Iggy and Fang. Max didn't know what Charlie was so upset about for a minute, but then she remembered; people were going around saying she was gay, and it was apparently true. Max raised an eyebrow at this—why hadn't anyone told her this before? It wasn't like it mattered to her, but… well, maybe Charlie hadn't wanted her to know.

"That son of a bitch Casey told everyone," Fang growled, answering Charlie's question and bringing Max out of her thoughts.

Iggy sighed in boredom and turned to Max. "And this is when I'm glad I wasn't friends with Fang when he was actually kind of normal."

Max raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The whole mess with Casey and Fang—you definitely don't wanna get involved with it." Iggy stopped to run his fingers through his hair, making sure it was still spiked up at the tips. "I'm not supposed to know anything about it, but Fang loses whatever filter he has after about four drinks, and it _all_ comes out after about six. I usually pretend I don't know anything about it to humor him, but trust me when I say you don't want anything to do with that Casey guy."

"I—" Max started, but was interrupted by a football player walking past.

"Fags," he coughed under his breath as he walked past.

Iggy, Max, and Fang stood at the same time, glaring at the back of the guy, but it was Max who spoke up. "Do you wanna say that again to _my_ face?" she shouted at his back, causing him to turn, cross his arms and raise an eyebrow at her.

"_What_?" He glared at the trio, then shot a disgusted look at the now very-upset Charlie.

Max glared right back. "Why don't you call me that again and see what happens," she challenged, crossing her arms and giving him her best death glare. Almost the entire lunchroom had gone silent, watching the conversation play out.

The guy laughed. "What are you gonna do, go _not _make out with one of your man-whore friends?" He rolled his eyes, still laughing.

Max was about to launch herself at this guy and punch him in the face, but she was pulled back by Iggy all of a sudden, who nodded to the table and practically forced her into her seat by the shoulders; Fang was already sitting back down, alternating between glowering at the guy and talking quietly with Charlie. As Max sat down, Charlie looked up and said a very quiet 'thank you' to Max, who just smiled in return.

Iggy walked up to the guy, whispered something to him, and all of a sudden, he was leaving without a glance back at them. The blond boy walked back to the table with a happy smile, and he lightly dropped into his seat next to Max and began to eat his lunch.

"I don't… What did you tell him?" Max asked, confused about why Iggy was so happy after confronting a jerk like that guy had been.

Iggy laughed, grinning. "I threatened to tell the whole school about his _little_ problem." He chuckled to himself as he drank his soda.

Max was going to tell him how disgusting he was being, but Fang and Charlie standing from the table and leaving the cafeteria without a word to them stopped her. "Where are they going?"

Iggy shrugged and took a bite of his disgusting looking school lunch. "Dunno. They're probably gonna skip," he said around the food.

"Do they make a point to skip at least one day a week or something?"

Iggy shrugged again and swallowed. "Hey, since Fang isn't here to get mad at me for asking you, do you wanna help me babysit tonight? I have to watch my little cousins. It's a pain in the ass without someone _fun_ there." He winked, grinning.

"Wh—"

"Great!" Iggy interrupted, still grinning. "I'll text you the address. Be there at seven, kay?" He got up from the table, picked up his tray, and slung his falling-apart-at-the-seams neon blue backpack over one shoulder. "I'll see you in Bio, alright?" He then winked at her again and left, leaving Max wondering what had just happened.

* * *

><p>"Fang, really, it…it's okay. I'm fine," Charlie smiled weakly to prove her point.<p>

"Bullshit," Fang growled, jerking his car door open and waiting for Charlie to get into the passenger seat. When she finally climbed in, he gunned the ignition and pulled out of the school parking lot. "You're upset, and I'm taking you home."

"You know, driving when you're angry—"

"Shut up." Fang cut her off. "You're going home, and that is final."

"Okay, but you have to promise that you won't—"

"I'm not promising anything, Charlie. And I'm _going_ to kick that son of a bitch's ass into next _year, _no matter what you say."

Charlie sighed. "Fang, you don't want to go back to that reform school, do you?"

Fang didn't respond, just turned the car onto a busy street and sped up as the light they were stopped at turned green.

"That's what I thought." She sighed again. "You… You don't even know that he was the one who told them. Someone could have found out. It could have been Iggy."

Fang laughed harshly. "Iggy wouldn't do that; he's too busy with Max. Casey is the only other person who knows. It had to be him. Not to mention he—" Fang cut himself off, realizing what he was about to say.

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "He what, Fang?"

Fang stopped the car at another red light, and ran a hand over his face. "I… You know about the fire that my parents… died in."

Charlie's gaze softened on Fang. "What about it? Did they…?"

"No, no. They… they think that a firework from nearby caused the fire, not like we thought…"

"What does this have to do with Casey?"

Fang sighed, stepping on the gas when the light turned green. "He was at the little… hang out thing where the fireworks were being set off. The police think… They think that he set the house on fire. On purpose."

* * *

><p>Max sighed and pulled up the address on the text from Iggy again. <em> North Rainbow Road. The blue one. <em>Who names a street Rainbow Road? Wasn't that the name of a track on some Mario racing game? Max rolled her eyes and got out of the car, walking up to the front door of the _bright_ blue house.

The door opened before she could knock on it, revealing a grinning Iggy and two young children to either side of him. "Max! You made it. This is Angel and The Gasman—you don't wanna know—we usually call him Gazzy though. Come in! We were just putting in a movie for them to watch." Iggy ushered Max inside and shut the door behind her.

The little girl, Angel, grabbed Max's hand and led her to the living room ahead of Iggy and The Gasman. She looked to be no more than seven years old, and she had a look of utter seriousness on her face. "Do you like Iggy? Because he really likes you. That's why he asked _you_ to come and help watch us—he usually asks Charlie because she lives down the road."

Max was taken aback by the bluntness with which she asked her question. "I, um… I don't know if Iggy, um…" she started, blushing, but didn't speak again when Iggy and Gazzy walked into the room, discussing some sort of explosion.

"So, Max, they wanted to watch _Tarzan_, if that's alright with you," Iggy said, smiling and picking up the DVD case from the floor.

Max nodded. "Yeah, that's fine."

She watched him set up the DVD, and realized that there was something different about him here than at school. However, Max couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe it was the fact that he practically had a smile _glued_ to his face. She finally realized what it was when he sat next to her on the couch—his lip ring was gone, and his hair was flopping down into his eyes, not spiked up like usual.

"What happened to your lip ring?" Max asked casually as the movie started.

Iggy shrugged. "Angel and Gazzy's parents wouldn't… approve, really. I can put it back in if you _really_ like it though, Maxy." He winked at her and grinned mischievously.

Max ignored the wink

and changed the subject. "Angel said something about Charlie?"

"Oh, she lives in the house across the street. She usually comes over and helps me out when I'm over here, but I didn't wanna bother her tonight after everything." Iggy shrugged again, running a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face, and grimacing when it flopped back down into his eyes.

Max laughed. "I have to admit, I like your hair better the other way."

"Me too."

* * *

><p>By the end of the movie, both Angel and Gazzy were asleep, and Iggy and Max carried them up to their respective rooms, leaving Iggy and Max to talk for the remaining half hour of their time babysitting. Max, however, really needed to get home to finish her homework, which she had completely forgotten about.<p>

After Max had deposited Angel in her bright pink princess-themed room, Iggy sat down with her on the couch, and noticing that she kept glancing at her phone for the time, spoke up about it. "You know, they're asleep. You can go home if you have something you need to do."

Max smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Ig." She started to get up, but Iggy pulled her back down at the last second. She looked over at him in confusion. "Iggy, what—" she started, but she couldn't finish because all of a sudden, Iggy was kissing her.

She pushed him off and stood quickly, holding a hand to her face.

_What just happened?_

* * *

><p>I hope that last part wasn't too shitty or out of character, as I wrote it under time pressure put on by my quasi-editorbest friend Alex. I sincerely apologize for all errors in spelling, usage, or grammar, but blame everything on Alex.


	7. Chapter 7

Really? Was it really that unexpected? The name of the story _is_ "Playing With Matches", after all.

So, if you saw the author's note I posted, there's a contest going on right now. The full rules of the cover contest are posted in the end author's note.

Tell me where I got Casey's last name and you'll get like, I dunno, something cool (writing wise).

ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS *sends one hundred hearts your way*

Once again, there is offensive language in this chapter. You have been warned. I hate having it here, but it's necessary.

* * *

><p>Iggy stared at the blank television and avoided Max's gaze. What the <em>fuck<em> had he been thinking? So stupid, stupid, _stupid_. He knew that Max had already been "called" or "claimed" or whatever the hell it was called by Fang. (Not that she would ever know about that.) That meant one simple thing: she was _off limits,_ and anyone who went against that was… well, Iggy didn't want to think about that.

Max was still staring at him, and he was getting a little uncomfortable under her stare. "You… you should go. You have stuff to do. I shouldn't have done that." Iggy stood and, without looking at Max, pushed her to the door.

"Wait, Ig," she said right as he was opening the door for her.

His head immediately snapped over to actually _look_ at her, and he raised an eyebrow in question. He shut the door and leaned against it, motioning for her to go on.

"Why…" she trailed off, getting a thoughtful look.

"Why what?" Iggy asked, smirking. "Why did I kiss you? Isn't that obvious?"

Max blushed. "No, I mean… why shouldn't you have done it?" It was a question, but she didn't say it like one.

Iggy sucked in a breath. She just _had_ to go ask the one question he couldn't answer. Well, he _could_ answer it, but he didn't really want to go through the motions of telling her all that had happened at the beginning of lunch the first day Max was there. The wonderful argument he'd had with Fang about who'd seen her first, about who _really_ had claim on her, about who could beat up whom… They'd been talking about Max like she was a piece of meat. He didn't want to go over that with Max; he would _definitely_ get punched, and getting punched by a girl was almost worse than the punishment Fang was _sure_ to dish out when he found out about this.

"I, um… well…"

"Is it about Fang?" she asked knowingly, with a disgusted look on her face. That was odd; he thought they were on good terms.

Iggy sighed, raising his hand to toy with a lip ring that wasn't there. "I… Yeah. He'll think—"

Max cocked her head. "Why should you worry about what he thinks?"

"He'll kick my ass into next _year_ if he finds out—" Iggy couldn't finish though, because Max had leaned forward and kissed him right on the mouth. He closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, right as Max pulled away, laughing lightly.

"There—you can tell him _I_ kissed _you._ Now if you'll excuse me," she pulled Iggy (who was still a little stunned) away from the door and opened it, "I have to get home and finish my homework. I'll see you tomorrow, Ig," she finished, opening the storm door and looking back over her shoulder, throwing a wink his way before walking out to her car and leaving Iggy staring after her with a perplexed expression.

* * *

><p>Fang honestly hated the nights he had to work; Susan and John required him to get a job, even though he had shit tons of money since his parents died.<p>

Tonight was especially bad; he was on shift with Casey, and fighting in the pool room was outlawed, so Fang just had to settle for glaring murderously at the bastard sitting in the lifeguard's chair across from his and fantasizing about all the different ways he was going to beat him up after shift was over in… forty-five minutes.

This was going to be the longest forty-five minutes of his life.

* * *

><p>When Fang's shift was <em>finally<em> over (Casey's was as well, consequently), Fang rushed from the pool, grabbed his things from his locker while constantly glaring at nothing in particular, and practically ran to the parking lot, where the air was suddenly thick with tension, as Casey was already there.

Fang shot a glare at Casey as he reached his beat up old car, leaning against the bumper and waiting for the redhead to walk by. When Casey finally did, Fang sneered. "So, Soren, having a good time ruining other peoples' lives?"

Casey stopped walking and turned to smile sardonically at Fang. "No clue what you're talking about, Nicky." He laughed and kept walking.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about," Fang growled, pushing himself off the bumper of the car and taking a step closer to Casey. "You told everyone at my school about Charlie."

Casey laughed and turned around to face Fang. "How could _I_ do something like that, Nicky? I don't even go to your school." He rolled his eyes to examine the rocks on the pavement, then smirked up at Fang. "No, I'm pretty sure it was some red headed chick," he laughed again, "Lissa, maybe? What's it matter anyway—she's a dyke, everyone should know about that, right?"

Fang launched himself at Casey, throwing a punch to his face and grinning in satisfaction when it connected with his jawbone. "You son of a bitch," Fang growled, preparing himself for the punch he knew Casey would send his way.

"Nicky, you know that wasn't a good idea," Casey said, still grinning sardonically and throwing a punch of his own to Fang's jaw, which Fang had already seen coming and had dodged away from, sending Casey's fist flying into the air behind Fang and narrowly missing a car. (That would have been painful, no doubt.)

Fang stepped even closer to the red head and pushing him roughly against the side of a car and holding him there by the front of his shirt. "You're gonna regret you ever _thought_ that about her," he growled, letting Casey go with one hand so he could punch him with all his strength. Casey's head snapped to the side and his jaw was now red and swollen. _That_ was certainly going to bruise.

Fang was just smirking in satisfaction and moving to throw (a now very disoriented Casey) to the ground where he could kick him when there was a shout from the stairs at the front of the Y. "Hey! What's going on over there?" The voice paused. "Is everything alright?" It was getting closer.

Casey took advantage of Fang being distracted to push him away and punch him square in the face with a sickening _crunch_, causing blood to pour from Fang's nose. Casey smirked as Fang looked frantically between him and the rapidly approaching concerned-adult, spit at the ground where Casey was standing, and fled to his car.

This wasn't over just yet.

* * *

><p>"Whoa, dude, what happened— "<p>

"To my face. Haha. Very funny, Ig. Go fuck yourself." Fang rested his head against the side window of Iggy's car, closing his eyes and discreetly wiping the back of his hand against his nose to make sure it wasn't still bleeding-Casey's punch had kept it bleeding _all_ fucking night and he was so _sick_ of having tissues shoved up his nose.

Today was Iggy's day to drive to school, but Fang was taking none of his bull on the ride there. Casey had put him in a _terrible_ mood, and Charlie wouldn't talk to him, and from the looks of it, she wasn't going to school today either, since she usually rode with Iggy and Fang.

"So, uh, Fang..." Iggy started, knowing now probably wasn't the best time to bring it up, but knowing it wasn't _going_ to get brought up otherwise.

"What," Fang snapped, glaring out the front window and glancing at his hand, relieved to see that there wasn't blood on it.

"I, uh... invited Max to babysit Angel and The Gasman with me last night." Iggy braced himself for the worst.

"Why the _fuck_ would I care?" Fang growled, rather than asked, still glaring out the window.

Iggy hoped that this response meant that Fang wouldn't be _too_ upset that kissing had gone down while they were there. "Well, um..."

"Did you fuck her?"

Iggy winced at the phrase. "No."

"Kiss her?" Fang had turned his glare to Iggy, and was staring on like it was the most boring thing that had ever happened to him, asking if his best friend had kissed the girl he was so enamored with.

Iggy hesitated.

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

"Before you say anythi— "

"You kissed her."

"_She_ kissed _me_."

Fang narrowed his eyes. "But you kissed her back."

Iggy stayed silent.

Fang sighed, his glare falling for a split second, and stared out the front window, his face then hardening into an impassive glare. "Just fucking get us to school."

* * *

><p>When Max sat next to Iggy at lunch and bumped their shoulders together playfully, he immediately got up and moved to the other side of the table, next to Fang. The two didn't even <em>look<em> at each other. Max raised an eyebrow. "So, what happened?"

Fang looked over from where he was eating his lunch. "What do you mean, babe?" he smirked at the opportunity to call her 'babe' once again.

Max rolled her eyes, smiling almost fondly. "You know what I mean, Fang. What happened between you and Iggy?"

"Just drop it, Max," Iggy said, speaking up for the first time since lunch had started and looking Max right in the eye as he said it.

It took her a minute, but Max eventually got what he was saying. "Oh, this is about last night?" She turned to Fang. "What's so bad about me kissing him? I can kiss whoever I want."

Fang narrowed his eyes, leaning across the table. "Not until I'm done with you, babe," he said, his voice lacking the gentle teasing tone that was usually present. He quickly kissed the corner of her mouth and went back to his food, thinking the discussion was over.

Max's fork stopped halfway to her mouth, and she let it fall back to her food tray. "What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked, her voice raising a few decibels.

Iggy winced. "Max, just— "

"Ig, shut up," Fang snapped, finally addressing his friend. "If Max wants to talk to me about this, that doesn't involve you." He sneered at his friend, and turned back to Max, turning his sneer into a cocky smirk. "It means exactly what you think it means, babe."

Max glared at the pair, crossing her arms. "What is going _on_ with you, Fang? One day, you're all nice and sweet, calling me by my _actual_ _name_ and not some stupid pet name, and the next you're treating me like I'm a fucking piece of meat!" She huffed in annoyance. "So you're mad because I kissed Iggy and not you, is that it?" When Fang stayed in his shocked-into-silence-state (no one, repeat: _no_ _one_ had _ever_ yelled at Fang like this), Max went on, her voice rising with each sentence she said. "Well, _Fang_, you're acting like a fucking five year old who doesn't want to learn how to share, but goddamit, I am _not_ a toy or a juice box! I can kiss whoever the _fuck_ I want, and you'll have to _fucking_ get over it." Max was now breathing heavily and had the attention of half the lunchroom, but she wasn't done yet. "And Iggy! You just _let_ this son of a bitch walk all over you? You have to stand up for yourself every once in a while. God, I am just so _sick_ of both of you! I'm leaving. I hope I never see either of you again." Max stood from the table roughly, jostling the food trays on the table as she reached for her backpack underneath the table. And she left, just like that.

* * *

><p>Fang stared at Max's retreating figure, wondering where all of that had come from. He hadn't been treating her <em>that<em> bad, had he? Well, now that he thought back on it, he had been a little bipolar... But she couldn't expect him to treat her great _all_ the time, could she? Especially when she was looking like _that_ all the time...

He was brought back to reality by Iggy nudging him and saying that it was time to go to their next class. He followed Iggy and zoned out for the rest of the day, only noticing that Max wasn't there in their last period study hall class. Was she skipping? She _never_ skipped…

He thought back to her words at lunch. He had to admit, they hurt a little bit. But he would never tell anyone that. He didn't _want_ Max to kiss anyone else. He wanted her all to himself, and boy was he mad that Iggy had taken that away from him. That thought scared him. With other girls (yes, he'd cheated on Charlie. It wasn't like she cared) he didn't care if they were with other guys, but Max was different. She was _his_.

Fang shuddered and moved on to another thought. He needed to work on his attitude towards her. Maybe he should try to be nicer? No, that just made him have all these mushy feeling, and he didn't want those. He wanted Max to realize that she wanted him. How could he do that?

He brightened as he thought of it. The same way she'd gotten to him: jealousy.

* * *

><p><strong>CONTEST RULES: <strong>Your entry for my cover contest has to be submitted to my tumblr (...PM me) OR to my email (which I will tell you after we PM details) by August 5th, 11:59 PM. _You_ have to have the rights to whatever cover you submit and you have to be willing to let me use it! You can submit a cover for any of my stories (but not Street Signs, as I deleted that one, or Hidden Moves, because I've already worked that out.) I'll decide who the winner(s) is (are) by the second week in August. The prize, once again, is the _deleted_ "*yell yell* *angry kiss*" scene from two chapters ago. Good luck!

OH. News on the Hidden Moves situation! We're finishing soon! (Well, Joey is. I don't have any more chapters.) Sometime this week, but I can't promise anything. Let's just say that Joey's finally got some motivation to finish up.


	8. Chapter 8

Mmm. This is late. Sorry, I'm not sorry. There are reasons, but I'm not gonna say those because I don't wanna talk about it.

The cover contest is over, and the winner is… Fluffy Bunnies Are Cute (or the person with the username something like that. I forget.) Just, uh… PM me, and I'll send you the thing.

**Also, there was an anon a little while ago who got mad because I wasn't being fair and "giving everyone a chance" (or something) to read the deleted scene. There was something about me being too lazy to make my own cover (which is totally true. Four for you, anon.) Lawl, no one got to read it except me because it's actually a deleted scene now. As in, I deleted it. On accident. Oops.**

One last thing. If you didn't read the author's note that was this chapter for a while, I am leaving the Maximum Ride fandom. I'm going to finish this story, then I'm out of here. It was fun, but I'm more invested in other fandoms right now. I'm still happy to talk, if you want ^-^ (if you try to convince me to stay, I have an essay prepared.)

* * *

><p>Max realized, in hindsight, that it wouldn't be very easy to avoid to boys with whom she shared almost every single class. (Well, every other day, at least.) Because she definitely meant it when she said she hoped to never see them again. It was really hard, though.<p>

At least she could eat lunch alone, which is exactly what she was doing.

It was getting a little hard to ignore Iggy's stares, though. He'd been looking over at her from the other side of the cafeteria since she had walked in and sat by herself.

Max eventually settled for glaring at the table and pretending the group across the cafeteria wasn't there. However, she was pulled out of her own world when there was a cough from in front of her. She looked up to see Charlie standing there, smiling, with her food.

"You aren't sitting with the boys."

Max had forgotten that Charlie wasn't there yesterday. She shook her head. "Nope."

Charlie hesitantly set her tray down across from Max. "D'you mind if I sit here, then?" Max shrugged, and Charlie smiled brightly, which was ignored by her friend across the table.

"So, what happened?" Charlie asked when she realized Max wasn't going to just explain by herself.

Max swallowed her bite of food, then spoke. "Stupid stuff."

"Like what?"

"Nothing, really."

"S'gotta be something if you're not sitting with them. Fang looks murderous, by the way." Charlie shoveled a bite of food into her mouth in a very un-lady-like manner—not that Max cared.

"Iggy kissed me the other day," Max eventually said, like that explained everything.

Charlie sighed. She should have seen that one coming. However, she played dumb and blinked her 'confusion' at Max. "And…"

"And Fang got like, stupidly possessive or something, so I yelled at them. And now I'm sitting over here." Max shrugged and continued eating.

Charlie nodded, then looked over her shoulder to the boys, who waved (well, Iggy did) when he saw her looking their way. Fang was too preoccupied with Slut #4, who was currently giggling and pawing at his chest. Max had apparently failed to notice the girls Fang had been entertaining all day, but Charlie wasn't going to draw attention to it. She knew what he was up to, and she wasn't going to have any part in it.

"…it's hard to avoid them, though. I have every single class with them. At least I don't today." Max sighed, bringing Charlie back to reality and making her realize that Max had been talking this whole time. She really should pay more attention.

"Oh, um, yeah. That sucks."

Max sighed and looked over Charlie's shoulder to where Iggy, Fang, and Slut #4 were sitting. She looked surprised that a girl was sitting with them, but Charlie couldn't be sure; she hadn't known Max long enough to be able to read her emotions like she could with Fang and Iggy.

Max watched as Slut #4 giggled and slapped Fang's head playfully, causing him to wince as if he were in pain, clutching the side of his head and snapping at the girl.

Max furrowed her eyebrows. "What's going on with Fang?" she asked, causing Charlie to twist in her seat and look over at them again.

She sighed. "The girl or his ear?" Sometimes being friends with Fang was the strangest experience Charlie had ever had.

"Um… both?"

Charlie laughed at her confused tone. "Well, the girls are because you ditched him, probably." That was a lie. Kind of. "And he gets a new piercing when he's stressed. I saw it this morning, since we carpool."

Max raised an eyebrow. "A new piercing when he's stressed? That's… interesting."

Charlie laughed. "Yeah, I guess he gets stressed a lot." She shrugged and kept eating her food, glancing surreptitiously up at Max every few seconds and smiling quietly to herself when she did.

"So, what kind of piercing is it?" Max asked. Charlie knew she was trying to sound as if she didn't care, but she wasn't doing herself much good. The little smile on her face and the way she kept glancing across Charlie's shoulder to where the boys were sitting was proof enough for Charlie.

"Um... it's called a scaffold, I think," Charlie said, suddenly uninterested in her food. "It's like a bar that goes through the top part of your ear."

Max nodded absently, took a final bite of her food, and stood from the lunch table, glancing at the clock to see that she had five minutes to get to her next class. "I'll see you later, Charlie? Thanks for sitting with me."

* * *

><p>Fang rolled his eyes as Slut #4 pawed his arm and cooed at him. He didn't even know this one's name. Bridget or Brittany or something. There was a b in there somewhere. It didn't matter; these girls never did.<p>

Jealousy usually wasn't the way Fang went about getting girls. To be honest, he usually didn't even have to _try_.

That being said, he was new to this whole 'trying' thing, and when he thought about it for too long, he began to wonder why he even _was_ trying. He didn't care about Max, right? He didn't care if she liked him or not, and if she didn't want to have a fling with him in the hall closet, then she didn't know what she was missing.

Right?

He just kept telling himself that.

"Hey, Fang—"

"I don't wanna hear it, Ig," Fang interrupted, still upset with his friend for going after Max when he'd had explicit instructions not to. Yeah, he was being selfish, and of course he knew it was gonna happen no matter what he did.

But he could still get mad if he wanted; he had that right.

"Fang—"

"I said I didn't wanna hear it," Fang snapped, glancing over to glare at the boy. Slut #4 stroked his chest and started kissing at his jaw, but Fang pushed her away in favor of his food.

Iggy glanced across the lunchroom to where Max (and now Charlie) were sitting, before frowning and looking over at Fang. "I'm sorry, alright?" He sighed, defeated and upset that it had to come to this.

Fang laughed. "What the fuck for?" Slut #4 giggled and slapped the side of Fang's head, getting a glare and a "Watch what you're doing," from Fang when she hit his new piercing.

Iggy sighed. "I'm not answering that." He nodded across the cafeteria to Charlie and Max, who were talking and laughing and appeared to be getting along great. "But you should take that into consideration."

"What, that Charlie likes Max? I already knew that." Slut #4 giggled at this, earning her a glare from both Iggy and Fang.

"No, that Charlie will probably be talking to you about what happened. And you know you'll have to make up then. Whether or not you're trying to make Max jealous, Charlie will make you fix it."

* * *

><p>Sorry it's short, but I've made you wait like, three months, and I'm happy with what I have right now. So I figured enough was enough.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Getting on with it.

As a side note, I have no idea what I'm doing. Just putting that out there.

* * *

><p>Max settled back in her seat, taking a long drink from her coffee (black), and smiled at Charlie across the table from her. "This is nice," she said, looking around the small hole-in-the-wall coffee shop Charlie had taken her to. "Not having the boys around."<p>

Charlie grinned. "I…yeah. I guess it is nice." Sitting up in her seat, Charlie traced the fake-wood patterns on the table and wondered out loud. "So, are you still mad at them? The boys, I mean."

Max shrugged. "Yeah, I mean. Fang was being a jerk. And Iggy just needs to stand up for himself. But I'm not as pissed…" She paused for a minute to take another drink from her coffee before grinning maliciously. "I'm just waiting for Fang to come groveling at my feet. Because I know he will."

Charlie laughed, thinking back to her attempt at texting Fang earlier that day. It had gone something like

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<br>Max is pissed.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<br>So?

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<br>You need to talk to her.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<br>Why do you care? It's all working out for you.

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<br>Just talk to her.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<br>Fuck off, Charlie.

* * *

><p>And that was where the conversation ended. They hadn't spoken since, and Charlie was fine with that, since Fang was being such a dick. She'd tried, and he would come around when he did. "He'll come around eventually."<p>

Right as Charlie said that, the door to the coffee shop jangled open, and in walked none other than Fang himself. Well, Fang and Slut #28. The number of girls he was going through had been increasing exponentially in the past few days.

"Speak of the devil," Max mumbled, sinking lower in her chair and watching Fang and Slut #28 from their spot in the corner of the coffee shop.

"Well, let's at least pretend to be deep in conversation so when he looks over here, he realizes that he's not the most important part of your life," Charlie suggested, leaning forward across the table and smiling brightly at Max, who smiled back.

"That sounds like a great idea." She leaned across the table and grinned widely, pretending not to notice when Fang and Slut #28 turned around and noticed them, and she definitely didn't notice when they started walking towards their table.

"God, Charlie, why don't you just kiss her already? We all know you want to," Fang said from behind Charlie, sounding almost disgusted, but a quick glance at his face revealed to Max that he looked more jealous (What was going on with that?) than anything else. Slut #28 giggled scandalously and buried her face in Fang's neck in apparent embarrassment.

It took a minute for Max to process what he said, and when she did, Charlie was already out of her seat and glaring at Fang. "What is your _problem_, Fang?"

Max tuned the rest of the conversation out because _hello, Charlie likes her?_ When did _that_ happen? Not that it was weird… It was just…weird.

Thinking back on it, Max realized that it was all pretty much there, laid out in front of her. She just hadn't seen it.

Max tuned back into the conversation, right as Fang shrugs and Charlie grabs his wrist, dragging him out of the coffee shop, leaving Max with Slut #28.

* * *

><p>The first thing Charlie noticed about Fang when he walked in was how tired he looked. And yeah, she was mad at him, but he was still her friend. And she was still going to worry about him.<p>

"Fang, you need to get yourself together," Charlie said, turning on him once they reached the sidewalk outside the coffee shop.

He smirked. "Not sure what you're talking about, doll."

Charlie glared in return. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Drop the act and go _apologize._"

Fang glanced back in the dark windows of the coffee shop, and seeing that Max wasn't watching them, visibly deflated, seemingly tired of putting up his façade. He took a step closer to Charlie and rested his forehead on her shoulder, exhaling loudly. "'M sorry," he mumbled into the fabric of her shirt. "For what I said."

Charlie smiled fondly, rubbing his back for a second before pushing him off. "Go on."

He stood up and ran a hand through his hair. He spared a cautious glance back where Max was sitting to be sure that she still wasn't watching. She appeared to be aggressively ignoring Slut #28, and consequently everyone around her, so he turned back to Charlie. "Is she still mad at me?"

Charlie shrugged. "Not really."

"What about you?" he asked carefully, nervously toying with his earrings. "About what I said?"

She laughed. "No, not mad. Something else came up the other day—I'll tell you about it after you go talk to her."

Fang nodded and, running a hand through his hair again, reentered the coffee shop and headed for Max's table. Slut #28 cuddled up to his side, but he nodded his head at the door, and she left with (what she thought was) an adorable pout and both of their coffees. (She'd paid, after all.)

Max raised an eyebrow at the boy sitting across the table from her. "Yes?" _She doesn't seem _that_ mad, at least Charlie was right about that_, Fang thought to himself, before speaking.

"I'm sorry."

Max's expression was nothing less than shocked at his immediate admission. "Excuse me?"

"I was a jerk. I'm sorry. I, um… Don't be mad at Iggy, he really didn't do anything." Fang gave her a soft, pleading look that she had never seen and probably would never see again.

Max paused for a minute, seeming to consider his offer, then spoke. "Charlie and I were going to see a movie, but it looks like she got distracted." Max nodded over Fang's shoulder to where Charlie was still standing outside the coffee shop, talking to a short girl with short, dark hair and glasses. The two appeared to be deep in conversation, and Max didn't want to interrupt that. "You can come instead."

Fang smirked and winked, his usual cocky-self reappearing. "Sounds good, babe. Do we get to go at it in the last row?"

Max just rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

><p>Okay, it's short, but you really can't blame me. (Actually, you have every right to blame me. Be mad at me. Be angry. Whatever.) I'm so out of practice writing stuff like this. Ugh.<p>

I'm sorry it took so long, and I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but they're not fighting anymore! So that's good, right?

Also, because I know I won't be posting another chapter before Christmas/the world ends, happy holidays! I hope your wintry holidays are lovely and filled with joy and happiness and no zombie apocalypses.

I know I've been gone for a while… but reviews would mean a lot to me?

So, review, please? (It'll make me write faster.)


	10. Chapter 10

**BEFORE YOU READ: **put in headphones, open a new tab, go to Pandora, create a new station based off the "electronica" genre. DON'T play the music until the fic tells you to.

Also, it's good to see you guys again ;) Guess who had a birthday the other day?

* * *

><p>Text to: All contacts<p>

My house, 9 p.m. tonight. Be there.

* * *

><p>Fang sent out the text with a smirk as he watched Susan and John pull out of the driveway from his bedroom window. Susan was right to be apprehensive when leaving him alone in the house for a long weekend (he certainly wasn't complaining about having this Friday off school), but they wanted their time away and Fang wasn't going to stop them.<p>

Fang's phone beeped with an incoming text.

* * *

><p>Text from: Iggy<p>

Booze?

* * *

><p>Text to: Iggy<p>

Bring what you can.

* * *

><p>This party was gonna be <em>great<em>.

* * *

><p>Fang was throwing a party.<p>

Of _course_ he was, but if he thought Max was gonna show up to his dumb ass little party thing, he had another thing coming. She had more important things to do than go to a dumb party where there would probably be alcohol and no adults.

Ella burst into Max's room, clutching her phone like a life-line. "FANG IS THROWING A PARTY!" she screamed, and Max winced.

"Yeah, I know."

Ella grinned. "Did he invite you, too?"

Max rolled her eyes. "How _else_ would I know about it?"

The grin seemed to be permanently glued to her sister's face. "Why aren't you more excited? This is my first high school party! Come on, we have to think about what to wear!" Max rolled her eyes again as Ella bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.

"We're not going, Ells."

Ella's face fell. "What do you mean, 'we're not going'? Of _course_ we're going! Oh, I wonder if Nudge got an invite too, should I bring her along with us?" Of course, her grin was plastered right back on her face by the time she finished.

"Ella, there aren't going to be adults, and there's going to be alcoho-" Max cut off as her phone beeped with a text.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<p>

I'll see you tonight, right babe? ;)

* * *

><p>Max rolled her eyes.<p>

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<p>

Probably not.

* * *

><p>Ella peered over Max's shoulder at the screen and grinned even wider. "Fang! You're texting Fang. He wants you to come, he asked you himself! We <em>have<em> to go now."

Max rolled her eyes again. "Just because I got a personal invitation doesn't mean we _have_ to go. I already said we aren't going."

Max's phone beeped again, and Ella's gaze snapped to the screen.

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<p>

Come on, babe, please?

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<p>

On a scale of 1 to first degree murder, how illegal is this party going to be?

* * *

><p>Text from: Fang<p>

I'll personally keep the booze from your sister, if that's what you're worried about. Please?

* * *

><p>Max rolled her eyes, knowing he wouldn't stop until she gave in.<p>

* * *

><p>Text to: Fang<p>

Fine.

* * *

><p>Ella cheered.<p>

* * *

><p><em>(Play the music here.)<em>

Nine thirty ("We can't get there on time; no one will be there!") found Max, Ella, and Nudge outside of Fang's house and walking up to the front door, which swung open right before Max knocked. Fang stood in the doorway, wearing his typical black t-shirt, artfully ripped dark wash jeans, and heavy looking black boots. He had a drink in both hands, one of which he held out to Max with a lopsided grin. "Nice to see you, babe." He could hardly be heard over the music coming from the house.

Max rolled her eyes and took the drink, frowning at the smell. "Yeah, yeah." She took a sip and grimaced, but figured if she didn't willingly drink, Fang was going to force her, so she might as well.

Ella and Nudge frowned at Max's drink. "Max, can I have-"

Fang chuckled. "No alcohol for Max's sister and her friend," he sing-songed after he chugged whatever he was drinking, and Max was suddenly struck with the fact that Fang was tipsy. Already? Just great.

Fang stepped back from the door to let the girls inside, and slung his arm around Max's shoulder as he walked back with them. Some sort of electronic music was blasting from a few speakers in the corner of the main room, being operated by a guy Max recognized from her AP French class; the furniture had been pushed against the walls to make room for dancing. There had to be at least 150 people crammed into the living room, and more were arriving every minute.

"I'm glad you came," Fang shouted over the music into her ear, steering them towards the makeshift bar, where Iggy was mixing drinks.

"Max!" Iggy shouted over the music, grinning from ear to ear. "Fang told me you were coming, but I didn't believe him."

Max rolled her eyes, shrugging off Fang's arm. "I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it if I didn't show up, so here I am," she shouted over the music, taking a drink from whatever she had. It tasted like Coke mixed with some sort of alcohol, but she didn't wanna ask.

Iggy grinned up at her while he mixed Fang another drink. "I think Charlie was looking for you," he shouted, jerking his head toward the throng of people dancing. "She's somewhere in there."

Max nodded and chugged her drink before heading into the throng of people dancing, feeling eyes on her as she shoved her way through trying to catch a glimpse of her friend. She looked back over her shoulder to see Fang watching her with an unreadable look on his face, but she just kept pushing her way through to find Charlie. Max, after being dragged into several highly suggestive dancing sessions with a few guys, finally found Charlie sitting on one of the couches with the same short, dark haired girl Max had seen the other day when they were at the coffee shop.

Max sat with them, and Charlie looked over with a grin. "Max!" She nudged her dark-haired friend until she looked over. "This is Alex, Max! She's my girlfriend, kind of."

Max grinned. "Nice to meet you, Alex." Without any warning, Charlie leaned over and kissed Alex, leaving Max to sit there and wonder what she was even doing at a party like this. She kind of drifted off until she sensed a presence in front of her, holding out another drink. Max looked up to see Fang standing there with that unreadable look on his face again. Max took the drink, eying Fang. "What?"

Fang shook his head. "Nothing, babe. Do you wanna dance? Or..." Fang trailed off, staring at Max while she took a sip of her drink. The same alcohol-Coke mixture. Fang ran a hand through his already-messed-up hair while he waited for her answer.

"No, I'm okay. Why don't you," she grabbed Fang's wrist and yanked him down, "sit with me." Fang landed half on Max's lap and draped his arm around her shoulders. He shifted around until Max was sitting half in his lap, and his face was in her hair.

Max smiled and took another drink, leaning against Fang. "This is better than dancing, yeah?"

He nodded into her hair, smirking. He found her ear and spoke directly into it. "Are you having a good time?"

Fang's hot breath sent chills down Max's spine. She shrugged. "I was, until Charlie started making out with her girlfriend." She nodded over at Charlie and Alex, who were still going at it. She downed the rest of her drink, surprising herself when she realized she actually _liked_ the taste.

Fang kissed the spot underneath her ear. "Are you having fun now?"

She shrugged.

* * *

><p>Charlie smiled as Alex pulled back from the kiss they'd been sharing on the same couch where they'd been sitting since the beginning of the party. "Hey, I'll be right back, okay?" Alex pressed one last kiss to the corner of Charlie's mouth before heading towards the bathroom.<p>

_That was nice_, Charlie thought as she downed the rest of her fourth (or was it fifth?) drink.

Alex hadn't been gone for more than thirty seconds when a very drunk Max was suddenly standing in front of the couch, grinning sloppily. "Charlie!"

Charlie grinned back. "Maxie! Hi, are you having fun?"

"Yep! D'you wanna dance? I was gonna ask Fang, but I can't find him…"

Charlie stood from her spot on the couch and Max dragged her into the middle of the dance floor before she could answer.

Charlie danced mindlessly with Max for about half a song until she realized they weren't facing each other and _was that Max grinding on her?_

Yes it was.

Charlie stepped as far away from Max as she could with people pressing in on all sides and turned to face her friend. "Max!" she shouted over the music, and the girl looked up.

"What?"

"I have a girlf—" Charlie couldn't finish what she was saying because Max had closed the space between them and kissed her sloppily.

Charlie pulled back before Max could get too into it. "What the hell are you doing?" she shouted, but Max just grinned.

"That was awesome!" And she left to go dance with someone else.

* * *

><p><em>(You can stop the music now.)<em>

Fang, being the amazing friend he was, allowed for Max, Ella, and Nudge to spend the night at his house.

It wasn't really because he was that good of a friend, Max was just drunk off her ass when the party eventually wound down, and neither Ella nor Nudge could drive. Well, that's what Max told herself the next morning when she woke up on Fang's couch with a glass of water and some aspirin sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

Max groaned and rubbed her head, reaching for the aspirin and drinking the water in three gulps.

"You're awake."

Her head snapped up to look at the speaker, and she groaned again. It had only made her headache worse. Drinking was definitely a bad idea; why had she agreed to it? Fang crossed the room from where he'd been leaning against a wall.

"What time is it?" Her voice came out scratchy and rough and _wow_ just how much did she drink last night, because she suddenly remembered that at some point she tried to make out with Charlie. She shoved her face into the arm of the couch and groaned.

Fang chuckled. "It's a bit past noon." He sat cross-legged in front of couch, and Max reached out to slap him.

"That's for giving me alcohol," she growled, and he just chuckled again.

"It's not my fault you're a lightweight. I didn't know three drinks would get you drunk to the point where you forgot that you like boys." He gave her that unreadable look again, but Max thought she saw a bit of jealousy in there. Was he really jealous that she'd tried (and failed) to make out with Charlie?

Max blushed. "Shut up." She sat up on the couch and stretched, ignoring the way Fang stared at her. He joined her on the couch, keeping a good amount of distance between them. "So are you immune to hangovers or something?" Because he totally would be.

He rolled his eyes. "No one is immune to hangovers, babe. I only had a few drinks, and I'm not a lightweight."

He laughed lightly as Max slapped him again, and she was struck with a thought: Fang was happy. Right now, he was happy. He'd laughed at her, and he was poking fun at her, and he hadn't made an innuendo in the entire conversation. She liked this. Happy Fang was nice.

They fell into a peaceful silence for a few minutes before Max realized that Fang's house was absolutely _trashed._ "Fang, your house is a mess!"

He shrugged. "Ig and I were gonna clean up later, after you girls left."

Max stood from the couch suddenly, ignoring the way her head swam at the effort. "I am helping you clean up. Come on."

Max found her way to the kitchen and began searching for trash bags, leaving Fang smiling to himself still sitting on the couch. Max poked her head in from the kitchen. "Are you coming or not?"

He stood quickly, dropping the smile from his face. "Yeah babe."

* * *

><p>Max and Fang had picked up about half of the plastic cups littering the floor when Fang's phone rang, breaking the silence they'd been enjoying.<p>

Fang pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

Max looked up to watch him.

"Is this Nick Ride?"

"Yeah." He put down the trash bag he was holding and pressed the phone closer to his ear.

"Fang, who's on the phone?" Max asked, but he just waved her off.

"This is Officer Jones, from the Meadville Police Department. Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah, I'm not busy." He sat in an armchair that had been pushed up against a wall and ignored the concerned looks Max was shooting him.

"I'm calling concerning the investigation surrounding the death of your parents. We've been forced to close the case because of lack of evidence. The limited evidence we had was stolen from the evidence locker a few days ago and we have more pressing cases at the moment." Fang tuned out after that and didn't even notice when the guy hung up on him.

"Fang, are you alright?" Max asked, bringing him back to reality.

He shook his head.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading, and reviews would be lovely (as they always are)!<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

So I abandoned this story over a year ago. However it is the summer and I am bored and I have a plan for the rest of it, so here we go. I might even be able to finish before classes start in August. Who knows.

* * *

><p>Casey lugged the box of stolen evidence into the back of his car and sat in the driver's seat, staring at himself in the rear-view mirror.<p>

Was he really about to do this? He could go to jail for it.

Then again, he would go to jail for much longer if the investigation surrounding Nick's parents' death was ever finished, and he was found to be guilty, he'd go to jail for much longer, so really, this was his only option.

He drove outside of city limits, barely comprehending where he was going.

He cut the engine as he pulled off the highway and into the desert, staring up at the night sky. He pulled the files from the back of his car and tossed them onto the sand, covering his mouth and nose as he poured gasoline over the cardboard box full of pictures, files, and a burnt-out bottle rocket, all labelled "EVIDENCE."

He lit a match and dropped it onto the evidence box, only staying long enough to ensure that all the information would be burned.

Casey climbed back into his car and headed for home. He punched the radio off as Fall Out Boy's _Light 'Em Up_ played and stepped on the gas, wanting to put this as far behind him as possible.

* * *

><p>Fang was gonna <em>kill<em> that son of a bitch.

He meant it, he was really going to kill him; he just had to figure out how.

After the police had called him that Friday, he'd kicked Iggy, Max, Ella, and Nudge out. They didn't need to see him like this.

He'd cleaned the rest of the house almost in a trance, thinking the entire time about how he was going to do it.

He could drown him. Hold him under the water, the next time they were on shift together, but that was too risky. He'd be found out, if not by someone in the pool, by his supervisor.

John had a gun, didn't he? But that was risky too. Not as risky as drowning him, though.

It would have to do.

* * *

><p>Max spent the entire weekend texting and calling Fang, making sure he was okay after that call that made him kick everyone out of his house, but he never responded to anything she sent him. Iggy and Charlie didn't seem to know what was going on either; when she texted them and asked if they'd heard anything, all she got back was that they hadn't heard from him since Friday.<p>

School on Monday morning found Fang in class on time for once, which had Max even more worried. She sat in her desk in front of him and turned in her seat, giving him a concerned look. His usual why-would-I-give-a-shit-what-you-think look had been replaced with one that could only be described as blank, cold, and calculating. He usually demonstrated at least _some_ emotion, but this was just… unnatural for Fang.

"Hey, I was texting you all weekend. Are you okay?" she asked, still giving him the same concerned look.

He shrugged. "Fine." He was sitting completely straight in his desk, his back rigid against the chair.

Max raised an eyebrow. "Bullshit. What was that ca—," she started, but he cut her off.

"It was nothing."

_Obviously not_, Max thought, but didn't say anything. It wasn't worth it. She'd just keep an eye on him for the rest of the day.

* * *

><p>Lunch found Iggy, Max, and Charlie all sharing concerned glances while Fang rigidly stared at the wall for the entire period. None of them had any idea what was happening, and when any of them even tried to ask, Fang just shut them out, even Charlie.<p>

Iggy cautiously touched Fang's shoulder, wincing when his friend whipped his head around to glare at him.

"What?" Fang snapped, practically shooting sparks out of his eyes.

"Nothing, bro. I just think you should eat something," Iggy said, pushing his lunch tray towards him.

"Not hungry."

Iggy raised an eyebrow. Fang was almost always willing to eat something. "You sure there's nothing going on, dude?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Now leave me alone."

* * *

><p>The end of the day rolled around, and Max was positive that something was up. Fang kept denying it, and she didn't know what it was, but she knew there was <em>something<em>. And she had a plan to figure out what it was. Her plan involved leaving Ella to find her own ride home, but this was more important. Besides, it was Fang. Ella would forgive her. Probably.

Last period study hall let out and Max shoved her books into her bag, forgoing a stop at her locker to run out to the parking lot and wait in Fang's car. She knew he never locked the doors to it, probably because they didn't lock anymore. That car was so old, the rust on the hinges worked as well as any lock would, but Max was strong enough to force it open.

She sat in the passenger seat of the car and held her backpack in her lap, waiting for Fang to come out to his car. In the meantime, she looked around his car, raising an eyebrow when she saw a dark green blanket in the backseat. He hadn't slept in here, had he? She picked up the corner of the blanket and peeked under it, immediately letting it drop back to the seat when she saw what it was covering.

She turned to face the front windshield, breathing heavily. Why did Fang have a shotgun under a blanket in the back of his car? Why did Fang have a shotgun, period?

Did this have something to do with why he was upset? Was he planning on doing something with that rifle? Max might not have been his biggest fan 100% of the time, but—

Her thoughts were cut off as Fang yanked his door open and collapsed into the driver's seat, staring out the windshield.

"What are you doing here?" He slammed the driver's side door.

"Fang, _what_ is going on?" Max asked, turning in her seat to look at him.

"I told you, _nothing is going on_." He growled his words, his voice rumbling deep in his chest and making Max shiver.

"Then why do you have a shotgun under a blanket?" She asked, raising her voice just enough so he knew she was serious about this.

"There is _nothing_ going on! Now get the hell out of my car!" he yelled, slamming his open palm against the steering wheel to accent his words.

Well, at least she'd gotten _some_ emotion out of him. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on." Whoa, where had _that_ come from? Fang was her friend, yeah, but hadn't she _just_ been fighting with him? Did she really care that much?

"I can force you to leave my car, or you can leave on your own," he said, his voice low and dangerous. He still hadn't looked at her since he'd gotten into the car.

"I'm not getting out of the car, Fang."

"You know, babe," he said, the pet name sounding foreign when his voice was so dead, "I'm really not feeling like forcing you out of my car, so I'll just drive you home. Where do you live?"

Max crossed her arms. "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

That seemed to set him off. "For the last time, babe, _nothing is wrong!_" His voice cracked on the last word, and Max snapped her head over to look at him. He was leaning his head against the steering wheel, covering his face with his hands.

"…Fang?" she asked quietly, the hard edge gone from her voice and just replaced with concern for her friend.

He just shook his head and slid the key into the ignition and turned it, pulling out of his parking spot and speeding off school grounds.

* * *

><p>Max didn't know where they drove to, but when they stopped, Max's stomach was growling and Ella had called her a grand total of thirteen times.<p>

Fang pulled into an abandoned parking lot and cut the engine, collapsing against the seat behind him. The tension that had been causing his back to be so rigid all day finally seemed to melt away as he fell back against the tattered seat and unbuckled himself.

They were quiet for a long time before Max spoke. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Fang didn't respond for a good five minutes, and Max was sure he wasn't going to say anything when he finally spoke. "I was going to kill him."

She tried not to let her surprise show. "Who?"

He shook his head, but mumbled something that sounded a lot like "Casey."

"Casey?" She asked, and Fang just nodded. She stared out at the empty parking lot and the street lights just beginning to flicker on. "Why?"

Fang took a few deep, shuddering breaths, sounding like he was about to cry. "When I was fourteen, my parents died in a house fire." He paused, letting Max take in the information. "The police originally thought that it was just faulty wiring—a squirrel had chewed through some electrical wires or something.

"Charlie and I thought we knew what had happened. I'd dropped a lit cigarette on some dry grass before heading inside; we'd always thought that had started the fire, but recently the police reopened the case. A witness came forward and claimed that Casey had purposefully lit the fire and… on Friday the evidence disappeared from the police station. They had to close the case."

Max responded after Fang was apparently done speaking. "So Casey took the evidence." No wonder Fang was so angry; this boy had apparently killed his parents, then destroyed all the evidence that pointed to him doing it.

He nodded, and Max saw from the corner of her eye that there were tears streaming down his face. "I hate him," Fang whispered, his voice cracking again.

Max unbuckled herself and got out of the car, walking around to Fang's side of the car and yanking open his door. "Come on," she said, holding her hand out to him. He took it and stood in front of her, gasping lightly as Max pulled him into a tight hug.

He wrapped his arms around her after his surprise passed, burying his face into her neck and crying silently.

"I'm always here, Fang," she whispered. "For anything." She stopped and thought about what she'd said. "Well, not _anything_, but you get the idea."

He smiled against her neck and pulled away slightly; smiling at her and resting his elbows on her shoulder, letting his hands run through her hair softly. "Thank you, Max."

* * *

><p>I am currently beta-reading for the lovely MaximumRider99 and her story, A New Beginning. You guys should go read that and thank her in a review, because I'm pretty sure it's what inspired me to keep writing this.<p>

I hope you're all having a lovely day, night, morning, afternoon, whatever ^-^ Thank you so much for reading!

Also it would absolutely make my day if you would review!


	12. Chapter 12

A chapter in a day? What?

This never happens. Anyway, getting on with it.

As a side note, if there is a word in all capital letters, it's supposed to be in italics.

* * *

><p>The next day began with Max and Ella being twenty minutes late to school. Since Max had left her car in the school parking lot the night before, they'd had to get a ride from their mother. Needless to say, neither she nor Ella were happy with Max at the moment.<p>

It wasn't like she could explain herself. What was she supposed to say? "You can't get mad at me because I was with the guy who has a monumental and creepy crush on me, who I kind of couldn't stand for a long time and now I'm not so sure about. I was keeping him from killing the guy who murdered his parents three years ago." Yeah like _that_ would go over well.

Lunch found Max sitting across from Fang and sharing cautious glances with him across the table as he picked at his food.

Iggy and Charlie didn't seem to notice the long glances between the two, preferring to complain about Dr. Allen's assignment for AP Biology.

"Max, have you started on it yet?" Iggy asked from his seat next to her, snapping her out of the latest intense stare with Fang.

"What?" she asked, looking over at her other friends. Iggy didn't seem to notice anything, but Charlie was looking between Fang and Max with concern. "Oh, that project? No, not yet."

"What about you, Fang? I'm sure all of us could-"

"Haven't looked at it yet," Fang snapped, only looking up from where he was shoving an entire piece of pizza into his mouth to give Max a look that said, _make him stop talking to me._

She sighed. Well, he didn't seem like he was going to kill someone anymore. And at least he was eating.

* * *

><p>Max narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her homework in study hall, but there were so many things distracting her. Fang being in the same room as her, for one thing. She could feel him staring at her back from the lab table where he sat across the room, and all she could think about Fang was the way her stomach had flipped and the way it had felt like all her nerve endings were on fire when they'd hugged last night. That hug had lasted for a good five minutes, only ending when Fang had happened to open his eyes and see that it was already dark.<p>

But Max was pretty sure that after he'd stopped crying (Wow, that was still weird to think about. Fang. Crying.), Fang had kissed her neck and up to her jaw and wow, she was definitely getting way too distracted thinking about this again. She needed to stop.

Max blinked in surprise looking back down at her math homework, or really at the folded piece of paper with the word "Max ;)" written on it covering her math homework. When had that gotten there? How long had she zoned out for?

She unfolded it and raised an eyebrow at the note that was so obviously from Fang.

_You leave first. I'll meet you at you-know-where in 5 ;)_

She looked over her shoulder at his seat, and he just nodded to Mr. Skipper at the front of the room, silently telling her that she should go ahead and leave.

As Max got up to leave, she began to wonder when she became able to know what Fang was thinking, just by the look on his face.

* * *

><p>The closet was dark and Max vaguely remembered there being a light switch somewhere on the wall near the door, but she wasn't entirely sure which way the door was, it was so dark.<p>

The door opened a few minutes later, flooding the room with light, and Fang slipped in, turning the light on from the wall behind him.

He smirked when he saw Max leaning against the wall. "Babe, you know there's a light in here, right?"

Max rolled her eyes, not wanting to let on that she couldn't find it. "Yeah, whatever. What do you want?" She raised an eyebrow, looking him over as best she could with the probably five inches between them. Funny, she hadn't remembered the closet being this small. Maybe that had something to do with what she'd been doing the last time she was in this closet with Fang...

_No, bad Max_! she thought. _Don't think about making out with Fang._

"Just to talk." He ran his hand through his hair and shook the tangles out of it, letting his hand fall to his ear, where he toyed with his earrings and scaffold piercing.

Max crossed her arms, dropping her arms back to her sides when they brushed against his chest. "You are incredibly bipolar, did you know that?"

He chuckled quietly, making Max's stomach flip again. "We went over that a while ago, babe."

"This is a whole different kind of bipolar, Fang. I understand being upset yesterday, but there's no reason to keep shutting everyone out! They're your friends, they deserve to know what's going on. Especially Charlie." Max whisper shouted. "And seriously, I _have_ a name. I thought we'd gotten past that!"

"You know what?" Fang asked, leaning in closer to her and wrapping an arm around her back, lightly tracing up and down her spine. "I've decided that I don't wanna talk."

He smiled as he moved in even closer, and his lips were just brushing against Max's when she jerked back, hitting her head on the wooden shelf behind her. She glared at him until he moved back as far as he could, although his breath was still blowing over her face. "You can't just keep shutting people out like this, Fang. Trying to kiss me is not a good way to avoid your problems."

Fang met her gaze, his eyes full of something that looked a lot like pain. "Shut up, Max," he said softly, finally looking away from her.

She frowned and sighed, trying to catch his eye again. "Sorry."

He was quiet for a minute before speaking again. "I'm angry. And I don't know what to do about it."

"You can talk to me, for one thing. And you have Ig and Charlie. They'll be happy to listen to you."

"I know."

Max sighed, checking her phone for the time. They still had fifteen minutes left of class, great. "Class is out in fifteen minutes, do you just wanna stay in here?"

He nodded, sinking down to the floor where he sat cross legged and leaned against the wall behind him. He motioned for her to join him, and she sat next to him with her knees up to her chest and her head resting against the wall. She turned her head to watch him as he stared at the cleaning supplies on the shelves, and suddenly words were coming out of her mouth.

"Hey Fang?"

He turned to look at her and _wow_ there was absolutely no space between their faces now. "Yeah?"

"This doesn't mean anything," she whispered, then leaned forward to close the remaining distance between them, pressing her lips to his in a chaste kiss.

She pulled back after a few seconds and opened her eyes to see Fang staring at her with surprise evident all over his face. He leaned back in and kissed her again, letting a hand fall to her side where his thumb rubbed small circles against her shirt. Max pulled back a fraction of an inch and rested her forehead against his, not opening her eyes.

"Fang?"

He kissed her quickly before responding. "It doesn't mean anything. I know." But he still kissed her again.

* * *

><p>So it's short, but there was Fax! That's what the people like, isn't it? Plus I updated two days in a row. That's a feat in and of itself.<p>

Anyway, it would be lovely if you would review ^-^


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